Two Mornings

[rajnish manga]

Two Mornings
Story By Anand Gouda

Smooth jazz is playing in my earphones, the weather is unlike typical summer morning it’s humid and cold. The park is full of joggers, old people and hot beverage vendors, I am lazy enough to do all those jogging and exercising part, I just come to park to enjoy the fresh air. In front of my bench there is a neem tree, since it’s after a slope I can see its branches, at the very end of a branch there is a nest with three little birds but one of them is different from the other two, a crow comes flying to the nest and feeds all the three and flies away, now I understand the different kind of bird is cuckoo, I had heard the that cuckoo lays its eggs in crow’s or magpie’s nest, it seems weird. ‘Doesn’t that cuckoo understand his mother has betrayed and abandoned him? And don’t those little crows hate that little cuckoo or their mother for feeding him?’ Such questions are interrogating me, as an old man comes and sits beside me on my bench, he is panting heavily, I offer him my bottled water he gently refuses it and takes a minute of rest and starts speaking pointing to the nest, I unplug my earphones to hear him, “I have seen this scene in the same tree years ago, when I was sitting with my daughter …” his voice chokes at the last word.

“Are you all right sir?” I ask holding his hand to make sure he is okay.

“Yeah, I am fine; it’s just that what you are seeing there is so true, in human life too”

“I don’t understand sir”
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[rajnish manga]

“See son, it has been true in my life, the same thing has happened in my life. Ours was happy family; me, my wife and two sons. One day our maid died while giving birth to her fourth child and the child was girl so her father refused to raise her all by himself and told he will donate or send it to orphanage, since we didn’t have any daughter we adopted her, they all grew up and settled in their lives, then the problem was whom of those would allow us to stay with them, none of my sons came forward but my daughter, even though she had an independent life as a teacher she let us to live with her, now the day has come when I have to stay at both of my sons’ homes 15 days each in a month like an alien” he sighs saying this.

“What about your daughter sir? Won’t she let you live with her anymore?” I ask out of curiosity.

Before he could tell anything, someone comes running to our bench, holds the old man’s hand and says “come on papa let’s go, it’s getting late”.

The old man gets up and leaves waving me a bye, I wave him back but the man who sent him away stays back and asks me “has my father told you anything about his life?”

Before I could say anything he himself continues “because he is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, it started as he wasn’t able to remember recent activities like: what he ate at the morning? Or whom he met yesterday and now it is in chronic stage and he doesn’t remember anything of his past, so he makes up his own stories and believes them as true and tells people the same, so whatever you have heard just ignore it. Have a good day” said the man and left.

I am unable to believe what I have just heard, everything that old man told was a lie! How could there be a disease which makes you forget your past, your loved ones! It is a strange incident that has happened to me this morning.
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[rajnish manga]

The next morning

Smooth jazz is playing in my earphones, the weather is unlike typical summer morning it’s humid and cold. The park is full of joggers, old people and hot beverage vendors, I am lazy enough to do all those jogging and exercising part, I just come to park to enjoy the fresh air. In front of my bench there is a neem tree, since it’s after a slope I can see its branches, at the very end of a branch there is a nest with three little birds but one of them is different from the other two, a cat climbs up the tree walks carefully towards the nest, as it nears the nest the increasing weight on the branch causes the little birds to turn over and look at the cat, they look frightened to me, one of the little birds which looks different releases a secretion, it deters the cat for a while but the cat doesn’t back off, it takes the different looking bird by its mouth and runs away. A crow comes flying to the nest cawing intensely, now I understand the different kind of bird is cuckoo, I had heard that cuckoo lays its eggs in crow’s or magpie’s nest. ‘Is this how it happens? Does the little cuckoo save the crow’s family? is this how nature planned it?’ Such questions are interrogating me, as an old man comes and sits beside me on my bench, he is panting heavily, I offer him my bottled water he gently refuses it and takes a minute of rest and starts speaking, I unplug my earphones to hear him “ you asked about my daughter right? My daughter and my wife died in an accident last year…” before he could continue I interrupt him.

“Excuse me sir, who are you? I don’t even know you, why are you telling this to me?” I say.

He looks surprised and insulted yet he continues “Don’t you know me?! We had met yesterday and I had shared my story with you, don’t you remember it? Don’t you?”

“No we have never met, you are confusing me with someone else, now would you please excuse me?” I say and start walking away from that strange person.

__END__