Dr. Doolittle - D'Souza

Text by LALITHA SRIDHAR

This young man loves birds and cures sick ones. Having built up a reputation as a bird doctor, Pradeep D'Souza also studies a "computer course". He offers to show me his bird clinic and we go up a ladder and trap door. Out on the roof of this tall building in Mumbai's business district I see on the one hand the splendid sunlit vista of South Mumbai , replete with flying buttresses and ornate domes, tiled roofs and grand spires and on the other a cage full of birds.

Sharing space in apparent amity were parakeets, cuckoos, kites, lovebirds, egrets, crows, parrots and pigeons in colours I had never seen before. Other smaller cages housed more seriously ill creatures, kept separately for special treatment. There were over 70 birds in all - mostly brought in by people who had heard of D'Souza's skills.

The young man explained about the money he got from an NGO to support his work. Charging his clients nothing, D'Souza is self- taught and scours second-hand bookshops for tomes on veterinary sciences. There is a flutter of agitated feathers as we enter the cage to take a picture. The lone eagle eyes me warily but keeps his peace.

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