Mr Chelliah

Mr Chelliah is a fancier with a difference. He prefers to throw his lot with the birds rather than the sport. And, if it wasn’t for him, it would have taken me a

really long time to win even a short 180 km race. My folks met Chelliah before I met him. Mr Chelliah lived close to where I used to live in Bangalore (he lived in Tippasandra and I lived in HAL area) and he had dropped in home, riding his cycle, upon learning from Col Smith that I was interested in joining the Karnataka racing pigeon club. My family grew by one on that day.

I wasn’t home, but he was invited in by my ready-to-welcome-anybody parents and they got chatting and soon discovered that they were all from the same hometown – Tirunelvelli (now that place has certainly spawned quite a few characters hasn’t it). I eventually met him at the next club meeting and what I didn’t know then was that my lessons in a practical approach to racing pigeons was just about to begin.

Mr Chelliah apart from being a true animal lover, is also generosity personified. Here’s instances of both: In my ignorant exuberance to have the best and most unique racing pigeons in the world, during one of my early interactions with Mr Chelliah, I mentioned to him that I wanted to build my own racing pigeon by crossing Carrier pigeons (called Badanka, in these parts) with highfliers and the blue rock wild pigeon. This must’ve sounded totally immature and outlandish to the experienced fancier who’d himself kept and bred pigeons, at that time itself, for close to 50 years, but he didn’t shoot it down or make me feel small. Instead he said, “That’s a great idea, and that’s how we got our racing pigeons today.” He then slowly let me in on the fact that if we did this today, not only will we be repeating something already done, but that we will be going backwards instead of forward and going forward is what we should be doing. And so I popped the question and asked him if he will be able to spare me two of his pedigree racing pigeons so I could breed some for myself… Mr Chelliah gave me 18!!!

About Mr Chelliah being the true bird lover, one needn’t go further than drop in on him during a pigeon race. As you all know, the time taken for a bird continues till you remove the rubber tag from its leg and clock it, which in these parts means you have to rush the bird as soon as it drops in, grab at the ring, yank it out rush back to the waiting refree, who then proceeds to write down the time. The following is the actual account of one of the refrees who witnessed Mr Chelliah clocking a pigeon:

Refree: “The bird (later christened Big daddy) had dropped in in very good time and I told Mr Chellaih, ‘Drive the bird in and catch it, you’re surely going to win this race.’ But he didn’t budge. Instead he told me... ‘he’s just come let him have a drink of water’. Which Big daddy took his own time doing… That done, I goaded Mr Chelliah to now catch the bird… but he still didn’t, saying, ‘let him go to his perch and feel comfortable with the fact that he’s made it home and then I’ll catch him.’” And of course Mr Chelliah took his own time doing that too, and eventually when he did, about 15 mins after the bird had landed, he only managed a 3rd place with two other birds beating him by only seconds. Chelliah, was and is still not interested in winning races, but he’d like his birds to compete and return home from great distances. He says, “I love my birds. I don’t want to trouble them. Just that feeling of having and breeding quality racing pigeons is good enough for me.”

Mr Chelliah is a small-team flyer, he doesn’t pool, sometimes, more than 5 birds. But what is interesting is that in spite of his low numbers and compassionate approach to trapping birds during races, he still knocks off a prize here and a prize there.

One person who’s benefited most from Mr Chelliah is me. All his birds bred winners for me. One of my favourite birds, Americana, was bred from a hen (Big Daddy’s daughter) he gave me. Americana flew four races in its very first year. It came in first in its very first race and was among the top 3 in the next 3. Two of my other great racers – Shogun and Miss Manners, are direct young from Mr Chelliah’s birds. These birds form the foundation stones of my breeding loft.

Mr Chelliah has a very practical approach to keeping and racing pigeons. He feeds his birds twice a day, gives them clean water but above all he believes that HEALTH is the most important factor in keeping pigeons. Birds that do not respond to treatment are sent to the ‘void’. “Breeding from birds that are unhealthy is inviting disaster,” he says.

When Mr Chelliah selects a pigeon he looks for the following:

1. Long cast body (Indicates a good long distance flier)

2. Bars of the birds should not touch

3. Wing should touch the tail bar

4. Violet eyes

5. Vibrations in the head

6. Good eye movement

7. Small pupil

8. Mr Chelliah loves blues and dark checkers. He says, “I don’t mind other colours, but thieves around my house seem to love colored birds and every time I get one there’s an attempt on my loft and I lose good birds.”

9. Mr Chelliah believes in out-crossing!!!

To be continued…