POETRY

Captivity And Freedom

Perspectives Of Two Birds

The bird in the cage looked out towards the sun-kissed horizon, the meandering cacophony of the free bird from the forest pinched his ears, yes, they were friends.

Come with me to the forest, the forest bird said, why my friend, why not enjoy the quiet enclosure, said the caged bird.

Why do you want to stay surrendered by the enclosed space, the forest bird said, tell me why shall I leave this safety, said the other.

You can sing songs, of any kind, freely without any restrictions, and here, you only sing the words taught to you, and nothing else, isn’t it?

Why would you like to sing any song, why not sing the song taught, by experienced people, here, which gets applauded by the humans?

You can skydive in the clouds, flap your wings as much as you like, winds shall caress your face, and you shall breathe free air.

Shall you get good food, like I get, a clean cage, someone to care for, everything at once, whenever I want to, where shall I settle for, in the clouds?

The friends looked at each other, confused, not knowing what to do, beaks tried touching each other through the cage gaps, eyes straight at each other.

Why don’t you come closer, so that we can hug and share our pains, what if I get entangled and get caged, too?

What if I end up in your golden cage, unable to flap my wings again, The caged bird smiled a sad smile- I lost my ability to fly now, cannot even flap my wings.

They kept staring at each other, eyes moist.

This prose-poem is inspired by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s beautiful creation- “Khachar Pakhi”.

Here are two links to the song, one sung by the legendary Suchitra Mitra and the other, sung quite recently, by Anusheh Anadil and Palki Ahmad.