Sunday, April 10, 2011

A bird in the bush is worth nothing, it should stay there.


 It was just another day of my really long study holidays, and as any responsible student would do I decided to watch TV and entrenched myself on the couch. It was really a nice day to go out and get some much needed exercise, so when my neighbour called me out to play football, I ran out without even closing the door. And we played for a while then realized the bitter truth that 3 people playing football in the scorching sun could get really boring. And just when we were about to retreat back to the safety and the refreshing atmosphere of an air-conditioned room , we saw something fluttering in a tree nearby – a bat.                                                                     
                                                                
                                                             It was entangled on a tree between a branch and a fallen kite's twine. It became obvious that we had a little too much sunlight for a day, when a guy suggested we catch it and eat it. So before he did something truly crazy, I decided to rescue the bat. Then the other guys came to help me, by help I mean throw stones at the bat. After lot of unsuccessful attempts it was time to bring in our secret weapon, my neighbourhood tree climber, for a 7 year old he can climb into places that I would not dare to be in my worst nightmares. After 10 minutes we were setting the bat free, much to the dismay of the crazy bat eater.
                            When I got home I had more trouble waiting for me, I had left the door open and a bird got in and was flying into all the rooms in my house. My sister was screaming and running around, completely scared of the poor terrified bird. We opened all the windows and all the doors, and this bird brained bird still could not find its way out. My sister’s screaming and yelling was certainly not helping the bird get out.I ran around each room clapping my hands to get it out of there. Finally I managed to get the bird out of the house. You would think a person would get into funny situations with birds not more than twice, especially a guy like me who hates birds. ( they poo a lot)
                                                
                                             But I had one more avian encounter left for the day. My mom went to church and left me in charge of getting the chicken inside the coup (a small wooden box with a plank covering the opening) when my mom saw the village office giving away free chicks (chick-baby chicken, not what just crossed into your mind) she thought having them will get rid of the worms in the garden, and we get eggs, so its like killing two birds with one stone. (pun intended) At first there were four of them, after 3 month two survived to actually resemble a chicken.
                                 I thought to myself how hard could that be, mom does it always. Pick up the bird and put it in; simple as that. But with me, nothing is ever simple. First of all, chicken DO NOT like to be picked up, I ran around the house trying to catch at least one of the feathery fiends. I finally caught one bird's wing  then properly caught it put it in the coup, closed the plank covering the opening. But after another 15 minutes of trying to catch the next chicken (I cornered it to one side of the compound and played some serious mind games to catch it) and when I bought that one to the coup, the plank was down and the first chicken was standing next to it, almost laughing at me. Apparently I was supposed to place a weight against the plank, which at that moment I faintly remembered my mother mentioning. But with a little assistance from my sister I finally got them both in. I think these birds were trying to get back at me for all the chicken and duck I have eaten over my lifetime. But guess what I came out on top, and though I have seriously restricted non-veg I have in my daily diet, (I only eat non-veg when a guest comes and mom makes some NV food items or when I got to some functions) I will be relishing every piece of chicken I will be eating in the future.
right now the black bird and the one in the extreme right are alive.....for now.