“From his little cage he could very well see my bars, the bars which are often invisibly set by society in the name of safety. “

With a chirpy voice he would call my nickname, it was so energetic that it was almost a wake up call for me. He was 10 days old  when mom got it for me ,unaware of his real cost. Right from the start I would always imagine freeing him one day secretly  but  I was too much attached to him and his screeching  ,

Parrato was a fast learner, within a few months he learned to speak out my name and also mimic our laughers. This green fellow became a passive, but highly adored, member of our family. We enjoyed feeding him variety of foods, talking to him ,we were obviously giving the possible life in his Cage.

“Why don’t we free him?” I would often ask my dad, seeing someone with wings sitting  still just disturbed me. , 13 year old me had read literature on caged birds ,I couldn’t settle for this Idea, but again my attachment held me back.

“Birds born in captivity won’t survive freedom. He will die if let out”. Dad would answer

“but what good such  a life do to him when he is born to fly”.

His good days were memorable, but the day he left was exceptional for me. It was that one usual day when all of us were busy doing our chores and had almost forgotten about our little member outside in his cage. In the evening my brother started crying, he noticed the cage was empty. Parrato had gone! Escaped the comfortable but  worthless life .

All we knew were that he couldn’t have gone far, he just couldn’t. We kept yelling his name all around, in the hope that he would respond like every time. I often wanted him to be free but that night I couldn’t sleep, he was a part of our lives after all. I kept thinking all night hoping that he would probably return to the tree nearby and call me out again . I was almost okay with the Idea of caging him again if he returns.

The big question was could he survive his freedom?  He might not be able to travel widths but definitely even his short flight would  give him glimpse of his real life. It was hard to let him go but it felt  liberating ,after all he was a bird meant to fly. My mind itself answered me.

It was his destiny and we as humans just didn’t justify our forceful safety which goes against the nature.

There was a good chance that he wouldn’t have survived, but If right in the beginning we would have shown some courage and let him free, today he would have known how to survive the risks.

“your food was great, you were all a family I was almost dead inside the cage too, even one flight would have been worth it.” I imagine this is what he would be wanting to say.

Then I realised , maybe all this time Parrato was just trying to call me out to empathise with him, understand him. Wasn’t I in the same situation?

This parrot tried to tell us all was that there was a slight difference between protecting and caging, caging is easier and has been done for ages. So naturally it seems right. In the unsafe skies of India women often end up being birds, protected and expected to love their little cage. Think about it ,think about the parrots you all were petting all this while completely unaware. For once focus on how can we make them fly safely instead of keeping them safe.