“Ah, you are looking at the yellow bird on the guava tree. I know what’s on your mind” Lulu, my parrot, said.

It was a early morning in Mumbai summer. Even the light breeze was warm which was a warning for very warm afternoon. I was sitting in my garden with a cup of tea and the newspaper. I gulped my tea, I did not like Lulu’s observation. Lulu annoys people unnecessarily.

“What’s it about that yellow bird?” Nina, my myna, curious as ever, asked. I felt Lulu’s words were an invitation for Nina to ask the question.

“Let him speak. He may have a confession to make” Lulu said.

“I do not like speaking in riddles like this” Nina said, she was irritated.

“Must you bring up that subject?” I asked Lulu. I was cornered and it was not possible to keep quiet and I had to answer the question. “Long ago, when I was seventeen, I went for a shikar along with my eldest brother who was in the armed forces and had managed to get a double barrel rifle for our adventure”

“Oh, that sounds interesting”

“We could not find a jungle fowl or any ‘game’”

“They run away from man and hide or camouflage well. You will not notice them although they keep a watchful eye on your movements”

“Yes. After some time, not finding anything to hunt, we were exhausted when I spotted a little yellow bird sitting on top of a vine which was swinging lightly with the wind”

“Don’t tell me you fired and shot and killed the yellow bird!”

“Hmmm …. I did”

“You killed because you wanted to try your hand at shooting? You killed for pleasure? Oh, no!”

“I am ashamed of it,” I said, “I feel ashamed. I deeply regret it” I wiped my tears.

“How could you do it?”

“My brother and father both gave me mouthful. I have never been scolded like that …”

“They objected to killing for pleasure. That is what the sadists do.”

“I am not a sadist, but at seventeen years of age I was immature, and I deeply regret my action. I repent it and have often asked for forgiveness in my prayers”

Lulu picked up the newspaper on my table.

“He is repenting, but there are others who are proud of their action of killing people unprovoked”

“What’s that Lulu?”

“US sank the naval ship of Iran. They torpedoed it.”

“Only 30 were saved by Sri Lankan navy. Eighty-seven buried alive in watery grave.”

“I don’t like violence.”

“But US is at war with Iran”

“No. They are  not. There is no formal declaration of war. There is a constitutional process for declaration of war. Without it, this act must be called a terrorist act by the world’s most powerful nation. Any Armed Forces officer will tell you.”

“Terrorist Act! And they are taking great pride in announcing that they did it. They seem to be celebrating it.”

“That’s the hallmark of a mindless aggressor. Gross abuse of power. Don’t we see it happening in the industry too?”

“Like?”

“Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better.com, fired 900 employees over a 3 minutes zoom call in December 2021”

“And Racold in Pune shut its gates suddenly throwing all employees jobless”

“And Vijay Mallya ran away to London when he shut down Kingfisher Airlines without paying salaries to his employees”

“It is amazing what a powerful person can do by a stroke of pen. Does a pen resemble a torpedo?”

“May be in shape, or may not be, we do not know. But in effect which they produce, yes, it acts like a torpedo. They torpedo lives and future of people.”

“What makes a person in power to order unprovoked killing?”

“It is ego. Bloated ego. A desire to declare to the world that he can do anything at will. It is lack of accountability.”

“And there is a perceived lack of consequences. ‘Who can counter me?’ is the question the man with power asks”

“Against this backdrop, I realize the importance of Mahatma Gandhi”

“You mean Trump is everything Gandhi was not!”

“Hmmm …. Yes. Actually yes!

“I see that the yellow bird episode has moved you from being an aggressor to believing in Ahimsa – non-violence”

“Yes, I think. As you grow you learn from your experience, and ‘experience is the name we give to our mistakes’ as Oscar Wilde said. Growing up also means letting go unwanted parts of one’s personality. But that deep regret of having killed a yellow bird remains as acute as it was”

“And that keeps our hope alive” Nina, my myna, said.

“Rumi, the poet said, ‘The wound is the place where the Light enters you.’” Lulu said and nodded in agreement with Nina.

Our eyes instinctively turned to the guava tree. The yellow bird had flown away and light breeze was swinging the branch of the tree.

PS: Picture Courtesy Image by jobin scaria from Pixabay

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All matter copyrighted.