In a little faraway desert village

Tucked away in the North of India

One day a bird lover simply

Got together some locals

Went about feeding some cranes

Obscurely found in the  dry sand

The birds looked all bit different

 Unknown in  new surroundings

  Were soon fed like guests

“Athiti Devo bhavo”

“Guests are  gods” says the holy texts

And in the context of  earthly duty

 Fed with grains each morning

The trend caught up soon for more

The birds were surely happy

For this   unusual food  service

In larger numbers they came

 And the more they gave

The simple villagers took   the onus

Of feeding these visiting birds in time

A society by the name of ‘Keechan’

Was soon ready for their care

 This dry dusty desert village

It has  a heart of gold

 Word got about so far

 About the birds and its feeders

 A haven for bird watchers

Five thousand kilograms of the feed

 Are consumed each day pecking

The villagers  proud to be the host

 Soon this obscure village is made famous

As the land of the visiting demoiselle crane

Named after none other than  her highness

The queen of France ‘Mary Antoinette’

For the black beautiful necked birds

  Were shapely and elegant they looked  

In the beginning there were two hundred

Now a flock of twenty thousand

After two decades of sustained feeding

In winter  to roost in large numbers

As soon   temperatures rise high

  Back to Mongolia   and Eurasia it will fly

An adventurous trip this far each year

Braving  wild encounters in  the way

In this village folk songs   so revered

On love affair of these soaring birds

From faraway place as it flies down

 Glide like aeroplanes above the land

 At night rest  in  wet salt bed plains

A disciplined well planned itinerary

A community devotes,  a work of nice  minds

 A love for the wild, to revere all living kind

Could bring  a sweet harmony

Between man and the flying species of another land 

In these times of disharmony,