Kuruvi

"I remember those days. We used to go to the park nearby and feed the birds while people were strolling or chatting at benches and eating at the roadside stalls," said thatha, re-tying his lungi as he stared out at the empty skies. He had gotten into one of his reminiscent moods again. I guess age does that - pining for a past that was supposedly better and happier. "Kids these days don't even know what a sparrow is. It's very unfortunate."
"Yes thatha sparrows were awesome we all miss those birds," I said sardonically as I shrugged and walked away, leaving his coffee at the foot of his chair. I'd heard this story too many times and my friends were waiting for me to start another game of Overwatch. I could hear thatha get into another one of his coughing fits as I shut my bedroom door and put my headphones on. He'd had a bad cold and fever for a few days now. Some people from the corporation came and did some tests. He didn't test positive so we could still walk out to the nearby grocery store, albeit with face masks on. 
That night he got worse. We share a room and he started having coughing fits. The kind where you would normally take thatha to the hospital. I asked him if he wanted me to fetch some hot water but he just grunted and went back to sleep. I didn't give it a second thought as I went back to sleep. I had a lot of studying to do the next day. 
The following morning thatha went out to the balcony and sat there with his newspaper - just as he had done for the last 20 or so years since his retirement. Suddenly he started screaming! As Amma and I ran to the balcony, "Lakshmi! Kuruvi di! LAKSHMI!" he yelled. A few birds got startled and flew away just as we entered the balcony. "Seri pa why are you screaming for that?" 
"Really, I saw 2 sparrows. They were building a nest on that tree!" he exclaimed, pointing at the guava tree outside our compound wall. I saw nothing. My mother went back indoors remarking, “Okay let them be there but don’t shout, you’ll make your cough worse!” But after 19 years of hearing about these sparrows and seeing pictures of them, I was a little curious. So I brought another chair out and sat with thatha. "Where was it thatha?" He just pointed at the tree again. 
After about 5 minutes I got bored and went back indoors. I didn’t see any sparrows and I had just woken up. It was breakfast time.
About 2 hours later I went back outside to ask if thatha wanted coffee. It was around 11am and I was going to make myself one anyway. "Amma come here, fast, thatha is not breathing!" I grew very frantic, running inside and running back out with Amma, not really knowing what to do. As she went to find her phone to call the hospital, I stood there stunned, staring at the empty chair beside him, 2 sparrows chirping and flitting about under it.

Comments

  1. Such a feel good story Vishvak! Good one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. very well communicated Vishvak.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought you are going to write a review about the movie kuruvi. I know how much you love that movie and carry a copy of that with you...

    ReplyDelete

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