A man is born free they say. It’s the most essential for all the living creatures. Nature has bestowed the gift of freedom to everyone and is precious for all. Life is a series of varied experiences and one such incident happened with us as well. It so happened that me and my family had to go out of the station for a month-long vacation to Madhya Pradesh. We packed our baggage and locked up the whole house including the doors and the windows and went for our holiday.

It was a really nice memorable trip and we had a lot of fun. When we came back after almost a month’s stay. When we came back we had an unexpected visitor as we unlocked the main entrance. Yes, it was a pigeon. The colour of the creature was abnormally dark. The obvious reason is being trapped in the house for such a long time. How it came into the house was a total mystery, all the doors, and the windows were properly closed, and there was no hole or the possible way it could have made its way inside.

When we opened the door, the pigeon just looked through us with shocking eyes and sat on the top of a ceiling fan. It stood like a statue there instead of flying outside. It appeared to it that it will never get free and will starve and be trapped till death. For complete 15 minutes, it was still, then it realised that maybe its time to go now…

We could well imagine the struggle of the pigeon, day in and day out struggling for its freedom. He was after all a prisoner in our house. We could well make out that it left no stone unturned for its escape. There were scattered feathers all over the house, on the dining table, sofa, kitchen, temple, bathroom, and washbasin literally there was no place left. Its droppings could be seen near the washbasin and near the dishes where probably it was searching for some food and water. After all those are the very basic needs, aren’t they?

Even we as human beings have our own basic instincts and so did the poor bird. Thankfully, the creature could manage some water and food as we had left food on the dining table. The water we assumed it managed from the toilet tank, bucket, and some tumbler in the kitchen.

The days would have been somehow manageable for the bird but what about the nights? It was the peak season of summer and though we had not left any fan on, thankfully we had a light turned on otherwise the poor bird would have been so scared to death.

It would have surely lamented making it into our house. It would have remembered the days of its freedom when it would have flown with its full wings in the bright blue skies, and enjoyed every bit of its beauty and strength. Just to be. When tired it would have sat at some branches of a shady tree…for food it would have managed its share with its counterparts whenever they would have gone in the search of food. Yes, of course, there was risk involved of becoming a prey to some predator like a cat, or getting caught up in some water cooler tank, and maybe electrocuted by some electrical wires, but each life is at risk of death till death arrives.

Freedom is the basic need of every soul and one feels suffocated if one is denied the right to be the way one wants to be and so was the case with the poor bird.

Our house is a small flat with 2 bedrooms, a drawing room, kitchen, and toilet and that too a small space of 750 sqft. So we could have well imagined a bird who is used to open skies and nature would have felt so claustrophobic.

Still, the bird did have courage yes it did. Surviving all those days is not easy. At least I can vouch for that for myself. To be all by myself with not many supplies of food and water, literally locked up, with no communication with the outer world. In the name of light, only one room has some dim light, no fans, and no windows open up. It was certainly a braveheart? I sometimes think, do birds and animals also have intellect, yes they do. In fact, nature has bestowed that natural survival instinct on all its creatures. Otherwise, how would a newborn puppy just after a few days would know exactly where to get its milk from its mother, no one teaches them to walk, no one teaches a fish to swim or a cub to roar nature teaches them all. So do birds have special sensitivity and intellect where to get their needs filled and how to survive? They have a lot of sensitivity in them and are able to pick up the emotions of people or other creatures around them, This way is also good to keep themselves self alert.

Our Dear pigeon, tried a lot of juggling around and all the bed sheets and pillow covers were showing proof of its kinetic energy. The cracks on the wall showed how many times it struck itself and also perhaps hurt itself so many times. The shoes also were a witness of it to have tried to make a cozy space for itself to feel safe and secure. The disappointment and frustration level could be made out by the whole house turned upside down.

It appeared maybe it lost its hope and gave up at times, but after sometime just as a wounded warrior gets up in a war with the determination to either fight or die fighting the same spirit was in our pigeon as well and after weeks and weeks of torture and loneliness and struggle and its attitude at the end after a month when we opened the door...... It got what it wanted yes, it got its freedom – The freedom of the pigeon.....

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