Short Story with Moral Lesson – Blue Bird Moments
Short Story with Moral Lesson – Blue Bird Moments
Photo credit: greyerbaby from morguefile.com
Last week, I took my usual rattling Blueline bus back home and sat on the filthy, stained seat, paan wrappers at my feet, staring emptily at the sea of traffic in front of me as my bus zigzagged through the cycle rickshaws, autorickshaws and numerous cars, racing ahead of all of them due to its sheer size and aggressive monstrosity.
And as always, the bus came to a forced halt near the Noida stadium traffic signal, not because the light had turned red (something that has absolutely no significance in Noida), but because of the endless line of vehicles lined up ahead that were waiting for yet another endless line of vehicles on the other side to pass through.
I don’t know for what, why, when or by whom , but suddenly a fight broke out up ahead and the slow mumbling of voices suddenly grew louder and louder till it began to drown out the sound of horns and engines around us. My Hindi is still pretty shaky even after a year here, but going by the number of ‘maa’ and ‘behen’ shooting back and forth I got pretty much an idea of what they were shouting about. Someone tried to break apart the fighting duo, but weakly retreated, preferring to be entertained until the traffic could move again.
Everyone from the back of the bus moved forward to catch a piece of the action and some people even got out of the bus and walked up ahead for a ringside view. And then, all of a sudden, one of the men tore off a rusty metal part hanging from a nearby bus and started brandishing it around like a sword while the other grabbed a stone from the ground to retaliate. Now, I was scared. Sitting in a strategic position high up against the window, I realized that my life could be in danger anytime, and to avoid the unidentified flying objects that were bound to follow, I reached out to close the window.
And that is when I saw it.
I am no Salim Ali, so all I can say with certainty is that it was not a sparrow or a crow. It was the most exquisite bird that I have ever seen. It was tiny, copper sulphate blue with a little brown or black near its wings , bright and beautiful. The poor thing helplessly fluttered around that pathetic roadside “park”. It circled the only available bit of green in that sea of dull grey a few times and hovered about, frustrated and confused , near a dry tree. I cannot imagine from where something that fragile and beautiful could have appeared amidst that filth and dust and smoke, but I like to think that it flew in from some paradise far, far away and on its way to another paradise, had somehow lost its way and ventured into this hell.
I looked around; all my co passengers were still engrossed in the fight up ahead that was on the verge of drawing the first drop of blood. I wanted to tap someone and point out to the tree outside, to show them what I thought could have been a sign from the heavens, an omen of the good things to come. But I looked out of the window again and the little bird had vanished.
For a moment, I thought that it was a figment of my imagination and that the bird was a mirage that rose out of the dust screen beyond. The heat was causing hallucinations. And then, a few seconds later, I spotted it again, sitting on the branch of a dust green shrub, cocking its head to the right and left trying to take a decision on what to do next.
I stared at it in awe for one long moment and the bus choked and started up again. I don’t know what happened to the fighting duo, they had suddenly vanished, but as the bus began snaking its way through the automobile ocean again, I looked back and caught a glimpse of a bright blue jewel against the evening sky, soaring away into the stadium lawns again, in search of the paradise it was seeking.
I got off the bus a few stops later, and as I walked back, a wave of philosophy swept over me. I thought of all the small beautiful, blue-bird moments that I had missed out on because my mind was consumed with anger, greed, jealousy or hatred. How such negative thoughts smother the best moments in life, dwarfing the small joys that actually count. I was lucky that day, to have been drawn out of the noisy fight and transported into a magical world, even if it was for just a few minutes. That moment, I made a promise to myself to look out for the bright blue bird the next time such emotions sweep over me. To blank out the noise and dust and filth in my mind and follow the bird. Follow it into that magical paradise that I know, is somewhere just up ahead.
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