One flew over a cuckoo's nest..One still does fly over the
cuckoo's nest..But..
Rewind 20 years.
It is 8 am. You have been pushed out of bed, so you don't
miss your school bus. You drag yourself out of bed and get ready, cursing the
schooling system, but run through the gates, just in time for the prayer. You
squeeze into your class line, not really bothering if you're the shortest one,
but at the end of the line (Heck, you still got there!). The crowd drawls,
while you gaze at the clear skies above. And there it is , the providence of
nature, the birds and the proof of their washroom routines clearly not in place
as a splat on your shirt. You get home by 4 pm, to be cursed by your poor
mother who will have to scrub off the stains from your shirt and get out to
play. 6:30 pm and its time for you to get to homework, while you see them going
home, ask your mom innocent ingenuous questions about their nests, their
nestlings, are told some flimsy fables, to shut you up. You go to bed, reading
fairy tales and parables containing parrots, crows and pitchers and if you
belong to a religiously inclined household, Jatayu's tales of his attempts to
rescue Sita.
And today..
It is 8 am. You are rushing to office, scrambling to find
your bus or busy answering the driver's call just so you do not miss your cab
and are forced to go to office on your own. You reach work, go about your day
and leave office at around 6:30 pm, again the same rigmarole, the same routine
with the buses and the cabs. And then, the TV, the couch and the comfort of
your pillow.
Have you ever taken out a moment and thought? You are at a
place now, where you don’t see a bird, or do not want to. Too busy in your
schedule to even notice whether they still fly overhead or are flying saucers
orbiting the planet. You are too old to admire those little flying creatures,
those species we learnt about once at school, learning how to distinguish one
from the other, from the way their beaks look, or the color of their feathers,
or their peculiar flight. Too old to admire what once fascinated us and kept us
hooked for hours, finding place on our canvasses and drawing boards.
But they, on their part still do exist, still do go about
their reckless ways, still fiercely protect their little ones. But from who?
Our children are too busy deciphering the new windows
interface, exploring (flaunting) their playstations, Wiis and Xboxes, studying
hard with thick spectacles to beat that kid at school who might just come first
this time. They're too busy trying to get ahead, or trying to stay where they
are, to notice what lies above. They don’t bring home feathers that they almost
stepped on and ask their Mom, just what bird it might be, but bring home
pamphlets of animation or computer language courses. They don't complain about
a bird dirtying their shirt, but complain about an OS crashing, a speaker not
working, an internet connection not streaming fast enough or a new pair of
Reebok zigs they are not able to find in a red color.
We on our part have too much in the day to tend to, to be
able to see an injured broken wing lying by the road, simply because you have an
important discussion in the cab with the other equally frustrated employees on
how Bangalore traffic is out of bounds and how the city is bursting at its
seams. In the late afternoon, you get out for a fag, but are too busy finding
out who said what on the floor and who's rating is definitely a 'Poor', to
notice a pair of eyes perched a few steps away staring wantingly at the
fountain by which you are sitting.
If you took a moment and looked up in the sky, you'd still
see them as you once admired them in flight, as sparrows you once nursed back
to health, as your once-upon-a-time friends, as playmates, as
fellow-earthlings. Yes, something has changed for us, in us, but the world
around perhaps has not. Its stood witness to mankind's progress, gently smiling
at the fact that he does not really care enough about whether all wings reach
home safe in a storm, or whether all nests have safe branches.
If only we cared enough to remember…to relive…to notice...
