The Little Blue Bird

On the 28th of June we got a surprise visitor. A dashing and beautiful blue bird dropped by home. Wish however that his trip had been a nice relaxing vacation like many birds take in my mom’s wild garden.
This little guy however virtually lived his life out of a soap. This is his story.
The discovery…
Mom was casually strolling through the garden-taking stalk of the flowers when she noticed the crows, they were fixated onto something lying on the ground and trying to catch it. It was out of sheer curiosity that mom decided to drive them away and see what it was they were after….. and there it was lying wounded on the ground. Like a brave soldier who had fought with his life for his motherland, on the verge of giving it all up but not until that last gratifying breath all of which he owed to the country of his birth and for which he would gladly give it all away.
Yes, the brave little blue bird was incapacitated ( for all you animal lovers, there were however no apparent signs of any broken bones or big time bleeding, but the guy was severely dazed. ) and badly in need for the second line of defense to step in to save his fort. That is were I came in, or rather mom called me in. Not that my contribution was too much to his cause given that I had no idea where his fort was. The guy to us was a total stranger, one, of whose kind we had never seen around, so we took him in hoping he would recover to fight another day.
The first few hours were tough as we tried to figure out his kind, with our common book of reference not being of much use. The most important thing was to figure out what he ate in order to make him recover his strength back. The guy was however too dazed to bother doing much at first, displaying no fear of the large ugly humans trying to poke and study him. With the greatest reaction being shutting his eyes when we approached his temporary home made out of a breadbasket with a lid.
It was several hours later that the guy was moving a bit in his makeshift camp and this is when our experiments started taking a scientific turn for the good. The water definitely was getting his attention but none of the other items we hoped he would munch on seem to catch his fancy. The mango, the date, the chilies, the bread, the nuts……. Nothing. This had us worried when at last almost by accident mom hit the nail on the head, rice grains! That was it, he was starting to eat, soon after we discovered he liked crushed gram (moongfaai). After that it was stuff the little guy contest, at home. We just wanted him to eat, drink get better and go back home. None of us don’t have the heart to see a brave little guy like him caged like a prisoner of war. No he deserved better.
After a marathon session of feeding it was time to let go. So there we went out with the soldier in his bread basket, meant to head his way home. But tragedy struck with the poor guy refusing to fly away from the old bread basket that he now had adopted for his own. A possible sense of loss, a defeated little soldier of fortune with no where to go. It was a heart breaking scene for us who had to get the poor guy back home to ensure that the crows did not get on to his case again.
The day passed uneventful, as the only thing that continued was the feeding. With the hope that another dawn would rekindle a new spirit, And it indeed appeared so when the next morning seem to have brought with it a new sense of vigor and strength in the little guy. He was dancing all over his make shift camp and even making some delightful sounds every once in a while. With this came a new sense of hope amongst us. And we decided to give him a trial go home run by letting him out of the cage, but inside the house. The experiment however was not very encouraging, as the guy could only seem to muster very little flight and showed little or no fear for us. It was than that it dawned upon us that the guy may actually be some ones domesticated pet. A humble slave to someone’s wishes instead of the brave little guy he had at first seemed. And this awakening brought with it the sad realization that in the given case the smart little slave may not be apt for survival in the harsh environment around him. Where only the fittest survived and the meanest ruled.
Were we stuck with him, a creature we couldn’t see caged and who could not survive free. It was one of those little twists in life that left nothing but a bitter taste in the mouth. It was than that it dawned onto us that we could put up the guy for adoption, and the takers would be a dozen a penny.
So as of now destiny’s little slave has been taken up by my cousin, whose little kid (Riyha) is absolutely crazy over him. I wish him a full life and pray that one day he gets to be the soldier, that the glint in his eye told me he could be.
Will update you guys on his life and times as and when more news follows. For now enjoy his snaps and admire his grace and beauty while he was still with us.