A Long Gone Friend
You stopped looking for me long back, but I am still in hope
that someday you will come back. Someday you will look outside
your window in search of me, but alas! my hopes are slowly diminishing. Seated
in my little abode, I keep wondering what has changed you so much. You used to
be so happy, full of life but now I feel sad when I see you.
You must be wondering who I am?
I am a little bird ‘Sparrow’- during your childhood, you used to
be so happy seeing me flying in and out of your house. Your mother always kept water for me in that earthen bowl that you made during one of your pottery classes. Indefinite times,
I did my breakfasts or lunches with your family. That granite slab in your
kitchen garden was supposedly the place where I used to find food for myself.
I was part of your family.
You not only fed me but also gave me a home, my cute little
nest, to live in. It was a project for your summer vacations to make a bird’s nest. You really enjoyed the task, and along with your Mom and Dad, you collected each and every twig, leaf, and grass
strand – assembled it all into a beautiful nest all through your vacation.
Yours was the best in your class. When your class teacher returned it, you brought it home, and placed it in between the branches of the
bougainvillea hedge in your kitchen garden. Next morning when
you curiously looked into the nest, you found me resting with my wings covering
my face. Out of excitement, you screamed in joy and I fluttered away from the nest only to return the very evening.
When my chicks
hatched out, you eagerly watched me feeding and taking care of them. You started putting huge quantity of food on that granite slab. You told your mom that I
will require more to feed my babies. That was so nice of you! the first time I flew out
with my babies, you were as happy as I was, or may be more than me!
Everything seemed so nice and good, but gradually you got busy in your
quest to become somebody important in this world. I always prayed for your
success, my prayers were heard. You got a very good job, handsome salary, all that you ever wished for. You got stuck in rut of life, why you humans grow up to be so weak? Material needs became more important for you, and you gradully forgot about me. The eternal happiness we both used to get seeing each other was gone.
I flew away from the abode you gave me. To my
disappointed you never ever even noticed it, I kept coming back to see how are you, I would watch you rushing through your days sitting on that same hedge where you gave me home, but the hedge was hardly present now. The bougainvillea in your kitchen garden lost its glory. One day, you uprooted it to make space for parking your
car. The cell phone you use is causing havoc on my species. Me and my
friends are slowly disappearing, destined to get extinct soon.
I wish everyone starts caring for us… so that all of us can co-exist.
When was the last
time you saw me? A little vulnerable bird, does anyone care about us? I am your long gone friend!
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| Source: http://im.rediff.com/news/2013/feb/22sparrow1.jpg |
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