Sandip Roy: A century of wonders with David Attenborough

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When a British citizen turns 100, they get a message from the monarch. It’s a tradition dating back to 1917 when King George V started sending telegrams to congratulate citizens on landmark birthdays.But Sir David Attenborough is no ordinary citizen.

And he didn’t get just a letter or a telegram.In a video produced by the BBC’s Natural History Unit, a relay race of animal couriers helped deliver the 100th birthday message from King Charles in Balmoral Castle in Scotland to Attenborough at Royal Albert Hall in London.A border collie handed the letter to an eagle who dropped it on a hedgehog who carried it wedged between its spines till a red squirrel picked it up. A flock of geese, an otter, a swan, a duck, a fox and a deer all played their mail-carrier roles until a barn owl finally delivered it through the letterbox of Attenborough’s home.It’s utterly magical but especially because it features not show-species like lions, polar bears or orangutans, but the most humdrum of British animals, the kind we read about in old Enid Blyton books where the children of Cherry Tree farm discover the wildlife in their own backyard thanks to Tammylan, the “wild man” who chooses to live in the woods.I loved reading (and re-reading) that book as a boy even though the Kolkata I lived in had almost none of the creatures Tammylan found in his woods—water voles, dormouse, stoats and red deer that shed their antlers.

All I saw around me were crows, sparrows and the occasional common mynas.One day we discovered to our great excitement an owl perched on our terrace. It seemed white.

My father bought a lottery ticket in case it was a good omen from Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. We didn’t win anything.