(I wrote it so that I can read it aloud to my son. And he liked it. :) Sparko is our ill-tempered pet parrot.)
I will tell you about the first time I was brought into this new house. It was probably like five months ago. I am not really sure. I don’t know how to count days and months. You see I am still a baby. I was taken to this new house on scooter. Amma brought me here. I mean not MY Amma. I don’t know what to call her. Or any of these three people. They are a family. A family of three people. ‘Naanna’, ‘Amma’, and ‘Chinnamma’. I don’t know their real names. I know only the names that they call each other with. Chinnamma is a small kid. Amma is a big woman. And Naanna is a big man. Naanna is also called Phani, both by the kid and the woman. I guess that’s his real name. He looks weird. He has no hair on his head where it’s supposed to be. And whatever is left is all white. Sometimes he changes his style. Like recently he suddenly took off his beard and colored his hair black. I could not even recognize him. I was scared by this new person. But slowly realised it’s the same old Naana, or Phani (a ‘funny’ sounding name, that one). Ok, let me go back to where I left off my story. I was telling you about the time I entered this new house, right? Amma brought me here on a scooter and left me in a closet. I didn’t even get a chance to look around the house. But by whatever I could see, the house looked empty, without any things in it. Amma opened the lock, entered this empty creepy-looking house, and walked straight to the next room and put me in a closet. And she then left the house, leaving me alone inside my cage. I mean she left me some food and all, but still, it was a scary experience. It would have been even more scarier had she closed the door to the closet. But thankfully she left it open a little. But all I could see through that crack of the door is an empty wall. I thought these people abandoned me for good! I thought I would die here alone. Or some bad guys would come and get me. At first, there was still some light coming in through the window. But slowly the light became dull until it was just plain dark. Darkest of the dark! And me alone in my cage, left to think my scary thoughts.
I am not really sad about these people leaving me. Because it’s not like they are my parents. I know them only for like one month. They used to live in an another house. That’s when Amma bought me for five hundred rupees. I am kind of glad she did that. Because the people who sold me to her were horrible people. You wouldn’t even believe what they did to me! One day a man just took a pair of scissors and cut my wings off! I mean part of them. It was the scariest day of my life! I saw my own little feathers scattered all over the floor, before somebody came in with a broom stick and cleaned them away to probably throw them in the dustbin. Those were a pretty pair of wings. I thought they were the only thing that’s gonna save me from those horrible people. I was thinking about using those wings to escape when the time seemed right. I was thinking about flying back to my parents.
I guess it’s time to tell you about my parents. Both my mom and dad were very good looking and green looking. Me and my brothers used to wait around for them in the nest all through the day. You can’t even believe how red my Mom’s beak was! She was just a beautiful lady. I used to wait all day for that beautiful beak to show up and push some food into my mouth. They used to come very late. I guess it was difficult for them to find food for me and all my brothers and sisters. We were a hungry bunch. We used to make a lot of noise around the nest. Dad used to scold us. He once said, “If you make a lot of noise like this, some snake or cat would hear you, and snatch you away”. I asked him, “What would the snake and cat do to us?” Dad was about to say something, but Mom stopped him. “Don’t frighten the kids!” she angrily said. I don’t know what Dad was about to say! I still wonder what it could be. But no matter what it was, it certainly could not be scarier than being left alone in an empty closet in an even emptier house. The only thought that saved me through that long, dark night was the memories of my parents. They were not many though. It’s not like I lived with my parents for years. I only lived with them for two months. Those days were the happiest of my life. There was nothing much to do. For the first few days after I was born, all that was there to do was to wait around for my parents. Our nest seemed so big, I guess probably because I was so small. I was ugly looking too. All these green feathers I have now were not there when I was born. I was quite crummy looking I must say. Even my brothers and sisters are like that too. You know one funny thing? Before they became my brothers and sisters, they were just eggs! Can you imagine that. But soon, one after the other, eggs kept cracking and these ugly slimey looking creatures started poppinng up. At first I was pretty scared. I thought they were some kind of monsters invading my nest. But Dad told me they were my brothers and sisters. They were a noisy bunch. I am not any less noisy though. After the first few days, everyone of us started getting feathers. We used to fluff ourselves up to show off. Mom was so happy. I was kind of her favorite kid. How do I know that? Because it’s me she chose to teach flying lessons first. Those were difficult at first. I used to be surprised at the heights Mom and Dad could fly to. They were almost touching the clouds. But all I could fly to was the very next branch to our nest. I was ashamed. I wanted to be like Mom and Dad, as soon as possible. But mom said “No hurry, everything in its time”. The tree I used to live in is a ‘Jaaama’ tree. But I hated Jaama kaayalu. I wanted to land on faraway trees and try new fruits. But mom said, “Never go beyond the Jaama tree, you are still too young for that. Just eat the fruits in this tree first”. I said OK. But I wanted to try anyway. That’s when the saddest thing in my entire life happened. I was trying to fly to the other tree but my weak wings gave away and I fell on the ground. I was about to go back to the Jaama tree where my nest was. But suddenly I heard some foot steps and a monster came running around and he just caught me. Well I thought it was a monster anyway. Later I realised it was a human. That’s the first human I ever saw. They are strange creatures, these humans. They don’t have wings and tails. And they are not even like animals. They walk only on two legs. But they are mean. They don’t kill you or anything, but they don’t treat you good either. After that first human snatched me , I went though the hands of several other humans. And finally landed on those horrible people who cut my wings off. I was scared, I thought they would cut my legs too. But, fortunately Amma came and bought me from them. For five hundred rupees. Was I costly or cheap, I don’t know.
At first I thought Amma also belongs to the horrible-kind. Who knows. You can never trust these humans. They can be pretty mean when they want to. So I was very worried when Amma took me to her house. The house was even higher than the tree where our nest used to be. It has many stairs. From there I could see many houses and a whole lot of sky. Amma opened the door and took me inside. She was carrrying me in a cage all this while. Then I saw this kid who was inside the house. That kid just jumped up from the chair he was sitting when he saw me. He was clapping and making a lot of noise. I was scared. They tried to make me come out of the cage. But I just didn’t want to. I started to threaten them with my beak. But they put some cloth around their hands and snatched me away from inside the cage. These two people wanted to pet me or something. But I didn’t even let them near me. I climbed all over the curtains and tried to be out of reach from their hands. But the curtains are not so high. They eventually caught hold of me. God! The kid was jumping all over the place! Amma was kind of gentle and nice. But this kid, you could never know what he would do next! I tried to be as far away from him as parrotly possible. Amma asked HIM to name me. Can you believe it? This crummy looking kid’s gonna name me like he is my parent or something. He didn’t even think much before naming me. He just put his finger on his chin like he was a scientist or something, and just said “Sparko!”. At first that name kinda felt weird. It still feels weird. It’s a nice name and all. But I still have to get used to it.
Then later that day, ‘Naana’ came home (he is also sometimes called “DaaDDa”, I don’t know how many names that guy’s got. I forgot to tell you, Amma also calls him “Phanammaa”!). One good thing, even a funny thing, about him though: he is scared of ME! Can you believe that! He didn’t even try to touch me. Once Amma snached me from the curtains with her hands and tried to put me in his hands. You know what he did? He just ran away to the next room and locked the door from inside! I guess that was the first human I ever saw who was scared of me! It felt funny. It felt good too. Well, one less person to be scared of, I thought. First night was kind of tiresome. They just wound’t let me sleep! They were showing me videos of some parrots. All the parrots in those videos were acting all cute, like they love human beings and stuff! That really surprised me. How can you be so happy around humans who snatched you away from your parents. I don’t know. May be they were different. May be their parents also belong to the humans. Or they were just acting. Amma and Vijju (—Oh, I forgot to tell you, this kid has an another name too. Amma calls him Vijju, Naana calls him Chinnamma. Naanna also calls the kid with many other weird names. Like ‘Chin Chin Mun Mun’, ‘Chin Chineswar’, ‘Bujjamma’, ‘Bungamma’, ‘Bronky’… and many more that I can never remember for the life of me. It’s like he got an endless supply of names for that kid. He even started inventing new names for me. He comes late at night from the office and calls me with all these cutesy sounding names–like Sparkle, Sparkly-thingy, Sparker…. I just want to punch him in the face or go bird-potty on his left eye whenever he calls me with these weird sounding names. But by the time he comes home I am usually too hungry to mind whatever the stupid names he is calling me with). Anyways, what I am about to tell you was, on those first days Amma and Vijju made me watch a whole lot of parrot videos. To make me feel at home I guess. But I hated them. They were all acting all cutesy and happy before humans. That really bugged me. I hated all of them. They were big losers and slaves. Acting nice to humans so that they can get treats and get by nicely. Some of them are even trying to talk like humans! What a sick joke! I cannot forgive those parrots for doing that. Amma and Vijju soon learned that I don’t really care about those losers, so they stopped showing me anymore of those videos.
The days in that house were very hot. I guess it was summer. They put my cage just near the door on a red looking thingy. I hated being just beside the door. Everytime somebody opened the door, I got worried some enemy came. I slowly got used to that. First, I figured out these three people were not my enemies. I mean I still don’t like them and all. But they are not my enemies. And I also figured out that this family is only made up of these three people. That surprised me. Mine was a big family. But these guys got nobody except themselves. Well, I guess I will be the fourth one. But first I have to like them right?
It’s not so easy I tell you. Most of all with that kid! God he is so noisy. He can’t sit on his butt for like one minute. Always moves around like a busy cockroach. And he was always trying to touch me. At the same time he was also kinda scared to touch me. My only weapons to keep him away from me were my poops. He hated my poops. So whenever he tried to hold me, I just pooped on him. My stinky poop. At first he was like “Eewwwww”. But you know one funny thing? Amma and Naana gave HIM the job of cleaning my poops. So my plan to use my poops against him didn’t work anymore. Because, with all that cleaing, he kind of got used to my poops and stopped worrying about them. I pooop, and he just brings a white papery thingy and cleans it up. I slowly got used to that place. I even started to like it to tell you the truth. Because it has a nice view and all. But just when I started thinking that that was the house where I was going to spend the rest of my life, this sudden change happened. Amma brought me on her scooter, and left me in this empty closet in an even emptier house.
That night in this new house is the longest night I have ever been through. It kept going on like forever. All I could do to spend the time is to think about my small nest in a place I can only remember as green. I wondered what my Mom and Dad would be doing right now. Would they even miss me? Or would they just forget me and take care of my brothers and sisters like nothing ever happened. I am sure my mother would miss me. I remembered her beautiful red beak. That night in the empty closet I even dreamed that she came to feed me. In that dream, I forgot that I was in this iron cage, I thought I was still living in the forest. And I swear I even heard the flapping of Mom’s wings too. And her landing on the nest. I was so happy. The happiness became all fluffed up like a balloon inside me, and suddenly, I woke up! But I was still in that damn dark closet. And everything felt heavy and sad.
After many long hours like that, the night was at last over. Suddenly the door of the closet opened and I saw Naana’s face. I was so relieved! I never felt so happy seeing anybody’s face. These guys haven’t abandoned me after all. I still belong to them. That day was a very busy, noisy, dusty, dirty day. People were all over the place. They were carrying things. Some of the things I remembered form the old house. Only then did I realise that these guys were actually changing their houses. I guess they didn’t want me to come along with all these heavy things. That’s why they brought me here a day before. Thank god! I thought they left me for good, and some other bad humans are gonna come and get me. Though I still didn’t like these three people, I was pretty glad to see them back. I guess they are going to be the only family I am ever going to have. I might as well learn to like them.
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