I tried, but I couldn’t escape. I was
caught in the darkness drenched in black. I tried to fly but I knew my freedom
was being curbed. My feathers were to be chained down in the cage. I won’t be
able to see the blue sky. Across the clouds I won’t see the sun going down. I
might not be able to hear my fellow mates even.
Suddenly I felt a strong force gripping my
body. I tried hard but the grip was stronger. Will that grip kills me? Shall I
be forbidden to my paradise even? I didn’t know. Only a shrill voice I could make
to inform the nature that I was being captivated.
I was caught ultimately. We don’t have the
habit of getting senseless but I was afraid of everything that was happening
with me. I had never been held in this way before. For a moment I thought that
the fowler was there and he would cut my wings off and I would never be able to
fly.
Was it true, I won’t be able to fly?
Patience!! I had been taught while I started
learning how to fly. I was put in a cage with enough of food in it. The cage
was iron built and I knew that I would cease living my life from now on. I was
a puppet in their hands and they would teach me to speak like them. I had heard
from the old folks that humans like birds; like us imitating them.
But slowly I realized that they had kept me
only as a pet and would do no harm to me. I was given adequate food. I was made
to bathe once a week. I didn’t know that water had such soothing effect. But
the water could not soothe my weary heart. Though everything was sufficient there,
I missed something.
I
missed my freedom. I wanted to fly....in the blue sky .I sometimes sneaked here
and there to find a path in the broken iron cage. Soon I realized that there
was a little part which had started rotting already. I gazed for a chance.
One day as they were busy in their
breakfast table, I got an option. Slowly and gently I flew out of the cage. I
touched the free air of the nature. I felt the blue draping me in its arms. I
felt myself free in midst of all the bonding that binds me with the nature.