Short Story – The Parrot In A Cage – The Tiger In The House
Photo credit: chriele78 from morguefile.com
We had a parrot but in a cage. When it was infant like ours , it eats ,drinks and be merry but when became young
enough, it was talking in its own language in the company of other ones who used to visit every now and then. We used to take care of it and used to feed at different intervals when we took breakfast, lunch, dinner and so on…
I was well aware of the fact that it preferred fruits particularly guava. I used to give it regularly. We gave it grapes, apples, carrot, vair, cherry also time to time. It was very happy and we treated it as our family members. The children from the neighborhood very often visited to see and talk to the parrot, sometimes when it was teased by someone, it cut his or her finger tops in annoyance. We were teaching it to say Ram. It got by heart the names of my youngest son Tinku and the grandson Kanchan as we called them by name off and on. Whole day it called their names very clearly. With the pace of time it became major and started to talk with the parrots who used to come and sit on its cage. They talked each other. We loved it and in turn it also loved us. It was a unique attachment with my wife who was always after her care all day, never forgot to give it proper food at the right time. My wife bathed it regularly too.
Once we were away on some job, a group of parrots came, talked and managed to open its door and took it away with them.
As man is a social animal as cannot leave without society, it also joined its society.
I saw an English movie long back. A girl bought a kid of tiger of merely one month old and brought it up. The girl was attached heartedly with the tiger that she could not live a moment without him. The girl became a young woman with the pace of time , so the tiger too, everything she used to gave him ,played, kissed as usual, even slept on the same bed with him but the tiger remained sad. She consulted a psychiatric and she was advised to drop him as he became young enough and wanted his associate , if I didn’t do that , he would not survive in sadness alone, he needed its partner, rather a better half as human beings, in a forest where his family lived. She took him in a closed car and dropped him near his company – among group of tigers and tigresses. The tiger stood free, marched slowly and slowly to his society but every time looked behind to his young mistress who brought him so carefully and loved so immensely – with his eyes widely open. The young woman who nourished him , loved him extremely and played with him – remained standing and standing staring at him again and again and the tiger turned his head behind off and on and looked at his mistress. Till the tiger didn’t disappeared from the sight of her eyes. I saw her beautiful face faded like jungle flowers even wet with tears that shaded from within her heart drop by drop.
The film was so tragic that mine also while watching it from the beginning to the end – became so emotional that I burst into tears.
Just then my wife appeared and saw me sobbing like a baby and asked :
What’s the reason you are sobbing ?
Alas ! I could have replied her question !
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Writer : Durga Prasad – dated : 5th. March 2015, Thursday, Time 6.10
