Twinkle and the crow

 

Nithya, my daughter, so affectionate towards Twinkle

By S Sudhir

Difficult to forget certain things.

Twinkle's last day

Four years ago it was the day when Twinkle, the pet who was the dearest to everyone in our family, passed away in my hands. It was mine right from the time when she was 45 days old. For six years we didn't travel anywhere, as we didn't want to leave her alone in the house. We all in our family couldn't bear what she was going through, on the last day of her journey on earth.

It sang while dying 

During my middle school days, we stayed at a walkable distance from my school.

On a rainy day as I was returning home, I heard a crow cawing in pain. I searched and found the wounded crow, fallen under a tree. As soon as the crow saw me it stopped cawing and started singing like a cuckoo. I was shocked. After a few seconds, the crow stopped singing and was only looking at me. I thought that the crow was getting better and tried to leave. But the crow started singing again and again.

As it started drizzling I made up my mind to leave. I was also getting scared thinking it was a haunted place and a cuckoo's ghost was inside this crow. After a few minutes, the singing faded and the crow was no more. I just gathered a handful of dried leaves and put them on the crow. I felt very sad and started walking home. My mind was filled with lots of thoughts. Why didn't I ever try to listen to a crow sing before? Why did I think that only a cuckoo could sing and not a crow? The crow had taught me a great lesson, "not to ever underestimate anyone".

I preserve my lessons forever. I feel happy I was the chosen one to listen to the last song... The crow's अंतिम गाना ....