There was a house opposite to my window. A house not a home because it was built by bricks and mortar and not by the bricks of feelings and warmth of love. In this house lived a mother with her 3 sons, two of them were married and about third I am still confused. Even I didn’t see her second daughter in law but there also lived a little girl, the daughter of his second son, which proves that he was married. It was not a happy family, not even ideal. A kind of bitterness was in the air of that house as they were fighting all over the day. As my table was so close to my window I could see things going in that house. There used to be so many conflicts in the house and I could actually hear them yelling at each other sitting in my room. The fight goes on between the elder couple, Daughter in law & mother in law, between the sons & so on. I used to notice so many weird things happening all over the day in the family & my whole calories were burnt in finding what actually was going in the family. What was really amazing in that family was the bond between the mother and the sons and it seemed totally out of the blue to me as even in such a family there was a sense of understanding and love in their relationship like an ideal one. But once I saw something which I can still recall this particular incident to the fall of my paradigm and also changed my thought about that ideal bond.
That day, I was studying in my room and the clock was showing 10:00 am. Suddenly I heard something, a voice…Vijay…Vijay…the mother was calling her elder son & the voice was not normal, there was a pain in the voice a kind of shiver that was unusual. I opened the window in a rush as I was confirmed that everything was not alright. The mother was telling to her son, “Betu flew away...” & I was little bit confused that how could Betu fly because Betu was her grandson & humans can’t fly, we ran.
The mother again said, “The parrot flew away...” & suddenly I realized that there was also a parrot in the house which I saw only once. It was in the cage & the cage was taken outside in the last winters for some warm energy which was necessary for the parrot in winters.
The mother was looking so tensed & her son started yelling, “How could it be possible?? What were you doing?? How could that parrot flew away in front of you??” many questions like this. The mother said, “I went inside just to get some water & when I came back, the parrot was not in the cage!!!”
There was a boy who was telling them that he had seen the parrot went neighbor’s side & the mother was searching for the parrot all over that side. She was calling his name, searching on guava tree, mango tree, in the house, in the neighbor’s house, all over the colony but she found nothing. The son was doing only one thing, yelling on his mother…”You are a liar; you are lying, what was the need to go inside, were you dying without drinking that water..!!! You opened the cage & let the parrot fly away & now you are lying, giving false excuses...You could have called me for the water if u really needed it, I stay in the home all day but you are a liar, giving excuses, you let the parrot free, you are lying..”
But mother was saying the same thing again & again & searching for the parrot everywhere. The mother was looking like she lost her own son, she was crying, she was tensed, to calm herself she had to have tobacco but there was no relief on her face. She was telling one thing only, “I am not lying, I went inside for water & when I came back, everything was ruined. It was like a son for me, I looked after him like a mother as I looked after you & your brothers. You don’t believe me but I am not lying…”
The mother was worried for the parrot and also because his son was not believing her. She was crying & suddenly something weird happened.
Vijay called someone & said, “Tragedy happened with us, the mother let the parrot free & now she is lying that she doesn’t know how it happened…”
Then he again started yelling at his mother, he was abusing the mother. He said, “The first thing, we all have to do is to beat you Lakshmi…!”
When I heard this line, I couldn’t believe my ears, the mother was crying, the son was abusing badly & I was in a state of shock. After a while, the second son came in & he also started abusing her mother badly. For me there was confusion, the son said, ‘tragedy happened with us’ but I was so confused, what was the actual tragedy….?? The independence of that Parrot (a bird, just a bird for them) or the abusing or false words of those sons to their mother because of that parrot…??? If the mother would have punished her sons for their 1st mistake instead of supporting them in their mistakes, she wouldn’t have to face this day now.
When I returned in the evening, the mother was still sitting outside, still tensed & her eyes were in the search of her fourth son. Her 3 sons were still doing same, abusing & blaming the mother. Finally, my false assumption about the mother- son relationship is cleared now but I am still confused about the actual tragedy, “FREEDOM of the parrot who was held without his will like a hostage, or the ABUSING of three sons to their mother, the mother who has taken care of her sons all her life???”
"TIARA"