Not so long ago I feared walking through the backyard of my house to the small market in my village. The houses in this part of the world have big compounds and most of your neighbours are your relatives. The houses have always two gates or more, one would be for the outsiders to come and the other would be through the compound, cutting across the few houses in the neighbourhood to the roadside and into the market.
That was always the side I used to walk to the market. The compound is filled with dry leaves of sundry trees, the coconut fallen scattered on the ground, pepper creepers on few trees, an electric post and not to forget the little birds those kept the bgm going. The best thing about my village is that it has all the calmness and innocence of an old village with loving people and all the facilities that could give the metros a competition.
Off all the creatures in the backyard were hen a d her kids. Something that is common in animals and humans are the love for their kids, parents are always protective. The hen was also protective, if anyone goes near her she would shake herself and get ready to peck you, sometimes run after you and you are stuck in a dilemma whether to run or stay there try and shoo it away and get pecked by her.
Every time I walked through that side to the market she came to attack me, I used to get past her at times, at times I have stood staring at her as if it was the beginning of a martial art sequence in a Jackie Chan movie. Day by day I hated walking through the backyard to the market and this hen had been the prime reasons of all which I didn't disclose to anyone in the family.
Sometimes I used to think about it and feel bad for it. She stays in a house with her kids, a small house which they sometimes would never know who made it. Not guarded by foxes if any had come down from the small mountain near by, or the pythons those crept by ones in a while. She didn't have the freedom to walk out without fear, a stone released from someone's hand might see her handicapped or kill her kids. Yet she lived her life to the full, broke the shackles of her fear and walked out in search of food with her kids, protecting them and attacking anyone who passed close to her.
Few days later on a busy evening I decided to walk by the backyard to the market, and to my surprise the hen and her kids where not in the vicinity, the next day morning too I couldn't find them blocking my way. For once after so long I felt I walked slowly through the backyard.
Evening when I got back I saw my uncle covering up a small hole in a corner of the compound, as he walked back to the veranda of the house, he informed that the rotten smell last night was of the hen that used to walk around in the compound. That had been found dead under the long branches of the coconut tree piled up around a water apple tree.
I felt sad on losing a creature that spread a message to the busy mankind by its life. It had very short boundaries to live in but it lived with freedom, fearless, happy. We have endless boundaries compared to her, we are still tied up, lost in the big world.
T.R.K
That was always the side I used to walk to the market. The compound is filled with dry leaves of sundry trees, the coconut fallen scattered on the ground, pepper creepers on few trees, an electric post and not to forget the little birds those kept the bgm going. The best thing about my village is that it has all the calmness and innocence of an old village with loving people and all the facilities that could give the metros a competition.
Off all the creatures in the backyard were hen a d her kids. Something that is common in animals and humans are the love for their kids, parents are always protective. The hen was also protective, if anyone goes near her she would shake herself and get ready to peck you, sometimes run after you and you are stuck in a dilemma whether to run or stay there try and shoo it away and get pecked by her.
Every time I walked through that side to the market she came to attack me, I used to get past her at times, at times I have stood staring at her as if it was the beginning of a martial art sequence in a Jackie Chan movie. Day by day I hated walking through the backyard to the market and this hen had been the prime reasons of all which I didn't disclose to anyone in the family.
Sometimes I used to think about it and feel bad for it. She stays in a house with her kids, a small house which they sometimes would never know who made it. Not guarded by foxes if any had come down from the small mountain near by, or the pythons those crept by ones in a while. She didn't have the freedom to walk out without fear, a stone released from someone's hand might see her handicapped or kill her kids. Yet she lived her life to the full, broke the shackles of her fear and walked out in search of food with her kids, protecting them and attacking anyone who passed close to her.
Few days later on a busy evening I decided to walk by the backyard to the market, and to my surprise the hen and her kids where not in the vicinity, the next day morning too I couldn't find them blocking my way. For once after so long I felt I walked slowly through the backyard.
Evening when I got back I saw my uncle covering up a small hole in a corner of the compound, as he walked back to the veranda of the house, he informed that the rotten smell last night was of the hen that used to walk around in the compound. That had been found dead under the long branches of the coconut tree piled up around a water apple tree.
I felt sad on losing a creature that spread a message to the busy mankind by its life. It had very short boundaries to live in but it lived with freedom, fearless, happy. We have endless boundaries compared to her, we are still tied up, lost in the big world.
T.R.K
