“Maaaaaaaa! Gueshh what I got” my little birdie chirped in
her ever pleasing sing song voice.
“Hmm.. what is it baby?”
“Gueshh naaaa…” the birdie’s voice is gaining frequency the
minute. She is every bit her father’s daughter – loving, raucous and edgy.
Looking up at her from the book I am reading, see that her tiny little hand is all balled up into a tight fist and is outstretched towards me.
“Is it a button?” She loves picking up these things from
wherever she can.
“No”
“Hmm.. is it a marble?”
“No…”
“Then is it..’”
“Never mind maa, I will show you” and she opens up her fist with
a broad smile to show these precious petals from a rose flower, blood red in
colour.
I am at a loss at what to tell her. Do I tell her that a
plant is a living being, and that she is not supposed to hurt another living
thing? But how could - I - who kills cockroaches and mosquitoes, eats non
vegetarian food – tell my daughter that it is wrong hurt another living being?
This topic is sure to bring a lot of doubts into my birdie’s mind for sure,
maybe I cannot handle them all, but I feel I still should try- that is my duty
as a mother.
Inhaling deeply, I make her sit down, close to me and tell, “Baby,
do you know what these are?”
“Uh huh” pat came the reply with the vigorous nodding of the
head, “rose petals. I plucked them myself. Look, they are shoooo pretty”
“Yes they definitely are very pretty, but not as much as you."
"Now listen to me carefully, the
plants and trees that you see around, they are living things – made by God,
just like you and me and have a life of their own. Do you remember when Roma
aunty’s cat scratched you, how much it hurt? You cried so much and maa had to
take you to the Doctor Uncles’ place.”
“Yesh yesh.. it pained sho much”
Aww, my heart goes out to her everytime she goes ‘sh’
instead of ‘ss’! Is it possible to hold onto these moments forever, never
letting my birdie grow up and fly out of my nest!
“Just like that, when we pluck flowers or cut trees, it
pains them, and the poor plants cannot even cry.”
The face that was beaming all this while had suddenly become
crestfallen, pretty much like the drooping sunflower after a sunset. It hurt me
to see her like this.
Springing up from where she was, she suddenly went out of my
sight. Now where was this girl off to, with that gloomy expression on her face!
Following the chirping noise, I reach a plant heavy with the
weight of blood red roses and find my birdie sitting underneath saying she’s sorry.
Picture Courtesy: http://sarabbit.openphoto.net/gallery/
This post is written in response to WriteTribe Prompt # 4
Beautiful and touching!
ReplyDeleteThank you Megha. Hope to see you around more often :)
Delete;). Ho u live upto ur name :-P
ReplyDeleteAwww... when you compliment, don't be so stingy na :P
DeleteJust awesome..:-)
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteVery touchy...
ReplyDeleteThank you AamJunta. Hope to see you around more often :)
DeleteAwww...touching and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much :)
DeleteVery touching. yeah, that's the way parent need to talk to their kids.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Sir. When I have children of my own, I will remember your words :)
DeleteJust brilliant! Loved it all the way. Such a sweet kid! Sorry, that should be shweet. Oh, and shorry. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Thank you sho much Shir says my birdie :)
DeleteSo cute!! :)
ReplyDeleteHe he :)
DeleteChildren and their innocent love!
ReplyDeleteGood you wrote this down to share with us. :)
Children are cute.. real or imaginary ;)
DeleteThat is such a beautiful and cute, shweet shtory, loved it, and the last part was very touching!
ReplyDeleteAww thank you Kislaya for those warm words :)
DeleteThis is so poignant ang touchy. Loved reading it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much ma'am. I appreciate it :)
DeleteBeautifully written dear.. loved it!
ReplyDeleteYou have such a wonderful gift, Bhavya. There's love and lessons aplenty in this and so beautifully expressed too!
ReplyDeleteOnly a little child can do something like this :)
ReplyDeleteaww this is so cute and bful !
ReplyDeleteI wish I could write stories like this ! Love ur narration style bhavz
awww bless, that's sho shweet.
ReplyDeleteDropping by from the Write Tribe linkup.
So touching this is. It is difficult to explain such things to kids and yet she understood perfectly. :)
ReplyDeleteMoms are the best story tellers, they wisely create a story relevant to the situation which includes a lesson for life... very nicely described...
ReplyDeleteThat's such a sweet and a beautiful story! :)
ReplyDelete