Forever yours…

Posted by Avantika Goswami, school student, Kalyani, West Bengal

She sits along with her children and feeds them turn by turn. She teaches them how to fly with their own wings and how to sing their own song. This is true for birds, and also humans.

Watching the two baby mynahs frolicking in the shade of the two crepe myrtle trees in our front yard, I couldn’t help wondering, if it weren’t for the pandemic and lockdown, I would be stuck in a cramped classroom. As I watched, mother mynah glided in, holding what looked like an insect in her yellow beak. She fed the two babies, who could just about walk and fly.

This whole week I have been watching the family of four flying around, eating and drinking confidently in our front yard. I guess, the reduced traffic has made them bold enough to walk around in our front yard which is right next to an otherwise very busy road in Kalyani.

This pandemic lockdown has liberated many animals and birds and they roam around without fear. Mother nature is teaching us that we aren’t the only ones who live on Earth. We have fellow animals and birds who want to be free and live in peace. But we cage and poach them for our selfish needs. Hearing the baby birds chirp and sing, I am grateful to God for making me understand that we do not own Mother Earth.

Even though I am confined indoors, these innocent and adorable instances have helped me cope with the lack of friends, depressing news and the fear that life may not be the same again. These precious moments would have gone waste sitting in a classroom with only humans to surround me with their mature and heedless talk.

PS: Today [Mother’s Day], I gifted my mother a handmade necklace to celebrate another mother’s selfless devotion to her baby.