Shahadat

Perching high in the sky, the eagle was staring blankly into the expanse. A vast expanse of involute material. ” You will come to me and i will come to thyself. We are consanguine.” Garuda, the eagle spoke while scratching its beak on the edge of claws. ” Claws today, paws tomorrow. I today, we tomorrow.” Garuda chuckled. The children were playing in the garden below, unaware of the eyes in the sky. A woman was carrying an empty waterpot back to her shanty. She was cursing the gods for not sending rains and the rich for swimming in their private swimming pools when the countryside was reeling under water stress. Garuda agreed with the latter curse. ” Water is there and will be there as long as life is there. They have to see that water is also one of the life forms just like they are. Life sustains life and no one species can survive at the cost of others. The problem is in the attitude of humans towards other forms of life. Water is one of the life forms which suffers humiliation at the hands of humans. Rest of the things will fall in place”. In the distance he could see a blanket of foam rising and falling incessantly. The foam when hit the shore, sent a volley of showers like it had to make its presence felt to break the monotony of its serene lifestyle. He surveyed the whole area again. There was no surreptitious movements anywhere. ” I have got to wait today. The rising sun will make the underworld creatures to slither out in open and that will be his bounty. Anyway, I don’t feel like eating today. It’s the body which needs constant influx of energy. What do I need then?”
He was playing with his own thoughts to kill the time of eternal wait. He was lost deep in his thoughts and a voice caught his attention. The voice was melodious to hear, a voice that can shake the strings of stone heart also. He looked in direction of voice. After a quick adjustment of his resolution and vision, he spotted a black coloured Asian Coel perched on a dense branch of a banyan tree. The koel, Lata, sang a few lines about life, love, struggle, separation, pain and death. Then she sang a couplet on romance. Somebody was playing “Koyal Boli Duniya Doli” and she started mimicking the trails of music. Perhaps the person who had played the song wanted the cuckoo to play along. Garuda was completely blown away by seeing all this. He flew to her and perched on the same branch. Lata was lost in her trance. She kept singing whatever melody came to her mind. The person who played the cuckoo song earlier played another, the ” Sawli Saloni Teri Jheel Si Aankhein”. Garuda was awestruck with such a sudden change in his warrior like attitude. He never felt emotions. “Emotions turn a predator into a prey”. He was taught. He was a man who was destined to fly high. He was responsible to maintain the chain of predation as it was. ” How could I behave so foolishly”, he mumbled and averted his eyes from Lata.
In the meanwhile, Lata finished her singing and looked at the Harpy eagle perched beside her. The presence of her death at such a close distance sent shock waves down her spine. Garuda was not looking at her. He was in a duel with his thoughts. Lata felt that her end had come. “Death at such a short notice, no my lord, no. I haven’t lived enough. I haven’t sang enough. I have tried to mimick every song being played in the neighborhood. I love it. People love me and I love it also. Have mercy on me Lord, let me live.” Lata prayed silently but her eyes were almost in tears. Garuda was still looking sidewise. At once, Lata thought she might try escaping without him knowing it. Then, she realised that she cannot run away from her end and if the end had come then she had to confront it with courage and honour. This thought somehow eased her racing heart. ” I have lived singing and I will die singing only.” She made up her mind.
Garuda, in a disoriented state, looked at the various creatures hustling here and there. ” All of them are living their roles. Why should I run from my own? Afterall, she might be one of my prey one day.” Having announced his decision to his fluctuating emotions, he was about to leap into the sky and then at the moment, Lata resumed her singing. Garuda was stopped by the heart piercing rendition. Lata closed her eyes and sang from her heart. She knew those were her last songs and she wanted to make them her best. The gullible predator couldn’t hold himself any longer. He just kept looking at her with a look of someone deep in love. He fell in love with the cuckoo.

Now every morning Garuda would sit beside Lata and listen to her singing. They would spend a lot of time together, talking, laughing, singing. Their friendship became a sensation of the town. Everyone looked at them with surprise. More than Garuda’s antics, people were surprised that Lata’s voice had become sweeter than before. It was as if every note of her voice was dipped into honey. Those were the happiest moments of Garuda’s life. He heard about love from a couple kissing in the shade of a tree he used to perch upon. The boy held the girl in his arms and promised things beyond what he could ever dream about. The girl used to giggle whenever the boy came up with a new line. Then, Garuda would puke at the scene. ” These people don’t even know a the thing they are talking so confidently. Love seemed to have become an inexpensive thing to lure a girl.” He would sulk and fly away. But now, he was doing the same thing. He would feel elated all the time. He felt very powerful, sensitive and ecstatic. He liked the limerence and prayed it must continue. He wanted the time to stop and he wanted to kiss everyone in the world. He promised to himself that he would stop hunting. Every now and then, he would bring some grains and fruits for Lata. When there was no one around, he started trying to eat grains and fruits. He wanted to develop the habit of this kind of food and surprise Lata. He wanted to join her league. Lata knew what was going on on his side. She observed everything with awe and surprise. She loved the way he was with her and the way she felt when she was with him.
Now people started arriving everyday under the banyan tree to see this mismatch. The cuckoo loved this attention very much. Seeing people searching for her in the labyrinth of branches and cheering up when they would locate her, Lata could not control her frenzy. She would sing with her might. She would try a couple of dancing steps as well. Garuda would become very angry when he saw people visiting them everyday. He started worrying about her. He feared someone might hurt her.

Time was on its sway. The love between Garuda and Lata was on its peak. Garuda would perch around her. He would take her in arms and play his flattery. Lata would blush at his remarks and would hop from one branch to another. Garuda would chase her wherever she went. He would circle around her and rub his beak on her hinds. Lata would shoo him away and start a new song. She would sing for hours. Garuda would just look at her. He would be too lost to act. Meanwhile, the people thronging under the tree started losing the interest. The spell was broken just like the fog disappears as soon as the sunlight comes. Lata didn’t like it. She felt insulted and gave up singing altogether. Now, seeing her in this state, Garuda also became worried about her. He started taking good care of her. He would come and talk to her about her illness. He would bring her everything she asked. He was afraid that some illness had gripped his love and he might lose her if she didn’t get well. Ar first, Lata loved his care. She felt consoled that even if she might had lost her audience, she had her man besides her. She would deliberately make him run for errands. She liked the whole scene. An eagle in love with a cuckoo, she would blush.
One day, she heard a group of women shouting in her direction, pointing at her. They were angry because they thought she had spellbound the eagle. They complained about a rapid increase in the number of rats and snakes. These vermins were feeding on their hardwork, destroying the standing crops and making their lives hell, the women said almost crying. ” Please release him and we will offer you handful of grains everyday”. The women said this out of helplessness. Lata’s heart sank when she heard this. Garuda was not there then. She sent him to bring a few down feathers for her to make a bed with. The voices of women were still echoing in her ears. She didn’t understand where she went wrong. She was doing what she could be doing, she thought. “I haven’t spellbound him. We are in love with each other. So he is as spellbound to me as i am to him.” She said this with arrogance, lifting her nose high. Even though she came up with her own conclusion, she wasn’t happy with it. She started crying. Garuda hadn’t come yet. She remembered the past memories, the happy times when she was the Queen of Melody of this town. People would stop and listen to her songs. Even the hunters would spare her for her beautiful voice. She used to feel a lively connection with the people. The bond remained rock solid until the arrival of Garuda. Things changed for worse after that, she observed. She dozed off while recalling the past.

“You are a disgrace to the nature. You have maligned our name. You are going against nature and will pay for it.” A sound came from distance. ” Rodents and snakes are damaging our crops and grains. Please, do something. How will we feed our children? Lord, kill us but spare our children.” Many familiar voices grieved in unison. Lata could not see who they were. She tried to look in the direction of the voices, but it was all pitch dark. She saw snakes coiling around children. Some children were lying there, writhing in pain. Their lips turned purple and bubbles of white foam popped out in the corner of their mouths. ” You are the killer of my children. You will never find peace, you dirty cockroach”. A woman was crying hysterically. She made a leap upon her then Lata woke up with a scream. It took her some time to realise that she was in a dream. She was very frightened. She tried to remember the scenes and voices of the dream. This time she realised that she was making a mistake and if she didn’t correct it soon, the consequences would be lethal. She made up her mind.

Garuda was looking for best down feathers for his princess. The search was taking long. He had to return to her soon. Although he collected a few of them, he knew those would not be enough. He never flew close to ground except for the final dive to catch his prey. Otherwise he was the king of the sky. And suddenly, his eyes caught a white feather gently floating in the air. But it was floating close to the ground. He hesitated for a moment. This was the first time he had to come close to ground for purpose other than catching his prey. Then an idea flashed in his mind. That he might find many down feathers down there, in the human society. He remembered the cheery face of his darling and dived into the land of flux. He collected the feather and kept on searching for more. He had to flew near houses. He perched on one of them roof. The members of the house which saw him, fell on their knees and begged for mercy. He couldn’t understand a thing. ” Why are these people begging to me? And what are they begging?”, The bewildered king sought a few answers for himself. ” Lord Vishnu, you have finally come to our help. Please help us lord. Get us rid of this menace.” Spake thus the kneeled voices. It took him a while to understand but when he finally did, he felt a nerve shattering rage flowing through his body. He forgot about his princess and charged upon the slithering vermins. Within a few minutes he threw the menace out of that house. Meanwhile, everyone in the neighborhood heard about the miracle. They came to the house and all he could see was a view of thousands heads kneeled before him. He realised that the menace was bigger than he had assumed. He charged like a swarm of locusts and, erected a tower of dead rodents and snakes. The sun was sinking, also sinking his senses back to normal. He remembered that his princess would be waiting for him. He was about to fly away just then he caught hold of some murmuring. He heard people were talking about the cuckoo that she had also accepted their prayers. His heart sank from the premonition that something bad had happened.
He flew with his might to the tree. She was not there. He searched everywhere. He searched every tree in the neighborhood. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere. The flashes of his past, his search for down feathers, his charge upon the vermins and the talk of the town, all of them ran like a train of images in front of his eyes. He couldn’t find the truth. He couldn’t see the truth. Although he knew it, he didn’t have the courage to face it. He looked at the sinking Sun. He tried to look for one explanation for this betrayal. Tears came running down his cheeks. He was still looking at the Sun. The Sun smiled at him. He didn’t blink his eyes. The train of images which he saw in front of his eyes, was now being played in the face of the Sun. He could see all the events being played in reverse. It started with his own images looking at the Sun. Then it proceeded to all the events happened in the past few months. He was watching himself looking after his princess. Then it went to explore in reverse, the period of great romance. She was singing and he was her best audience. There were many other audiences as well, he recalled. ” Were those the same people who were begging for mercy?”, He had a quick thought and discarding it, it proceeded further. In the orange Sun, he could see himself dancing with Lata. ” She is so lovely. I knew that she learnt those steps for me.”, His eyes blinked for a second. Next, he saw himself staring down at people who started coming to look at them. ” Were those really the same people?”, A streak from a lingering thought burst in his mind. The blast shook his senses. “Yeah, those were the same people. They used to come down there and their numbers reduced after a while.”, A new train of thought started running in his mind. He remembered that the cuckoo lost interest in singing since the day the numbers had started thinning. And, slowly and gradually, he started getting hold of the whole event. He sat there thinking for a while. It took him a little more time to adjust with the truth. He looked back at the Sun. The Sun was smiling. He smiled back. He raised his beak, fluttered his wings aggressively and plunged himself to rule the sky.