” I think it is time we got rid of them . Finally . This is our chance . ” My friend , V ,was breathless with excitement and rage and a certain indefinable animalistic urge . Maybe it was just violence . But it was infectious , loud and overpowering . Like forest fire . All alarm bells ringing . I felt like running . Away from the fire . Save myself first . Shouldn’t be sucked into this fire . Shouldn’t .
"Yeah . You heard me right . "
"But ..."
"You have milk at home ? "
"Yeah . But ..." V raced to keep up with us , on the road . Dry grass sticking out of his hair .
" Tea leaves , sugar , water , sauce pan , cups ."
" Listen dude ! You can't just march in like that inside my home for tea . My Mom will kill me ."
"Better she than some bigot . You were marching the Hitler way bro , a few minutes pre- samosa time . " S sniggered , rightfully . He had heard all our conversation . How could he ? The samosa stand was quite far off .
"And that also cured you of your hiccups . Thank me later ." S grinned , a coriander leaf green stuck in the incisors . I just loved this guy and how he defused the terrible situation .
"Saale !" (scoundrel ) , both pounced on each other good naturedly . I stood at a distance . This is the trouble with boys . One moment they are cheerful , good natured and sensible humans , next moment , they become neanderthals .
"A is judging us . " One of them sniffed, breathlessly, out of the entangled mass of arms and legs .
"You both are already judged ." I sniffed and walked away , arms crossed , nose in the air and promptly ran into an obese , good natured lady staring down at us trio , with mild trepidation and amusement .
Minutes later , we were seated in V's sitting room , with his Mom offering us the best ginger tea in the world . She was used to boys rough housing all the time , having raised an army of them . V had two older brothers and numerous male cousins , who kept walking in and out of his home .
In between sips , S told us the story of squaretails .
"In a forest , there were three kinds of birds , the forkedtails , the roundtails and the square tails .
There was peace for many years and every year they used to elect one amongst them as a leader . It could be anyone . Either of the three .
One night , a terrible storm hit the forest . Nests were destroyed , hatchlings fell out of the tree . Eggs got smashed , branches broke . Terrible mayhem .
Next morning , a roundtail couple who lost their nests , like countless others , were sitting at the site of their damaged nest and wondering what to do. Their nest was broken , the pieces strewn all around . Depressed and woebegone , they stared out in despair and saw a squaretail fix their broken nest too .
The squaretails worked in tandem . The female swept up all the broken pieces with her tail , the male picked it up in his tail , like a shovel and slapped it in place . Working jointly , they had fixed their nest before long , and a cosy little tendril of smoke emerged from the tiny chimney stack , as the female squaretail started a cooking fire .
Slackjawed with amazement , the roundtails watched and wondered. Slowly , in the bitter aftermath of the storm , the admiration was tarnished with envy . Whispered from tree to tree , branch to branch , the glow of happiness turned into a raging fire of hatred .
The squaretails are few . Shouldn't be difficult to get rid of them . Said one of the goonda roundtail. If they are so efficient , let them leave this forest to us , roundtails . Some raised slogans , others followed . Hatred filled posters appeared on the tree trunks .
Higher up , in their perch , the forktails watched warily . They didn't like it at all , but they decided it was between roundtails and the squaretails . We have no truck with either of them .
And so , one fine day , the leader , who happened to be a roundtail , read out the decree , banishing the squaretails from the forest forever.
There was some protest , some squealing , some rebellion . But it was expected . And it was quashed . Effectively . Some square tails lost their lives , some hatchlings too . Lot of nests were destroyed or occupied by the invaders and fearing for their lives , the squaretails fled . Some continued to live on the edge of the forest , in an endangered zone , where they had to contend with slingshots , gunshots and photographers coming in from the human villages surrounding the forest . Most of them went to unseen , unheard of places , where they retrained themselves , to survive amidst new predators and amongst alien trees .
Life went on . But now , the forktails were wary and kept out of the way of roundtails , having seen what they can do to birds who are not of the same feather as them . In fact they gathered around each other , huddling for solace and comfort among each other .
The forest was divided into colonies . Larger roundtail colonies , smaller , forktail colonies , higher up in the eucalyptuses . They had little interaction with each other .
Several years passed by . One year , a terrible drought filled summer hit the forest . At the peak of the heat filled month , a spark from somewhere lit up the giant eucalyptus trees like giant flaming torches . It was a terrible forest fire , it burned up everything that lived there . The animals on ground , the birds in the tree. It was an inferno like no other .
Some roundtails and a few fork tails survived , they flew southward , which was away from the fire and flames , ashes and death . They flew and flew , some just dropped dead out of sheer exhaustion and were swallowed into the flames . For the forest was huge and it was difficult to find an edge to it .
Finally , tired , hungry and singed , the birds found the edge of the forest . Finding a tree , still green and alive , they plopped on the branches and fell into a deep and troubled sleep .
They were roused to the sounds of fluttering wings and that they were being warily watched. No one seemed to be in plain sight . There was verdant greenery around , abundance of fruits in trees , nestable branches , a stream gurgled closeby , yesterday seemed like a bad and distant nightmare.
As they took a dip in the sparkling waters to quench their thirst and rid themselves of soot and ash , they heard an ominous fluttering . A group of young squaretails perched close by , watching them .
"Well , well , well. See who's here ? "
"It is our good old neighbours , the round tails ." A second , more scary looking bird , ruffled its feathers and spat out , with venom accentuating each word.
"Ah well." Began a middle aged roundtail , who was interrupted by and impatient young gent " What place is this ?"
" Well , brother".. drawled the scary one . " It is called " Going back to square one ." This was met with a cackle of laughter that echoed endlessly through the now silent and forbidding forest.
With this peculiar ending , S sat back and drained his cups of last dregs of ginger tea , now gone cold . He stared into the bottom of the cup. V's mom , who carefully and silently sat with us to hear the tale , got up , gathered the tea things , and marched off , declaring as she departed " I'll get some more tea "
She knew the tale was not over .
"What happened to the roundtails ?" V asked the obvious .
"I don't know . You tell me . " Shrugged S , lifting his shoeless legs off the floor and stretching on the sofa , as if it was his own home . "This is , as they say , your party ."
"Stop sounding so "Dumbledoreish."
"I am not . You tell me what should happen , and that will happen . It is fiction , anything is possible ."
"Truth is stranger than fiction . " I sagely announced and the guys laughed . That at least broke the tension in the air .
Finally , we all came to different conclusions . V thought roundtails should be punished and meted out the same treatment and driven off from the new forest and forced to look for newer pastures . S thought that after few skirmishes , all will be well and they'll learn how to live amicably . I thought that no skirmish was required . They all had a round table meeting of sorts , laid down some rules and lived together in calmness , if not happiness . V's mom thought all lived happily together .
"Utopia " sniffed V as I got up and left for home .
How else do you explain the inexplicable wars she waged against aberrant neighbours , winning every time , with the culprit restocking her pile , under her supervision .
Then there was the perpetually drying clothes . Babies clothes were pilfered or worse , burnt as kindling . Woollen leggings were favoured as they burnt easily , like dry paper or hay . In those scarce times , woollens were hard to come by and Mai had kept a strict lookout for them as she sat rolling chapatis or boiling tea by the wood-fire.
Once she saw the neighbour’s son throw in a black coloured woollen scarf , and got up mid -roti. That was not a good sign . She grabbed a stick from her pile , walked quietly to the neighbour’s fire , fished the smouldering scarf out , beat out the wisps of flames against the cold hard floor , looked at the culprit in the eye , and said “Come Here.”
The poor waif had no choice but to follow . We all followed them with our eyes , rooted to our respective warm spots , with fear and winter. Only didi moved silently , saving the roti on the fire from being charred . Even her eyes were glued to the spectacle . We braced for another war or at least few smart slaps .
Contrary to all expectations , She pulled out some dry newspapers from beneath our bedding and gave it to him . As the boy meekly made his way to his bonfire , she also handed him over the stick she had used . A thick one .
When she resumed her roti making job , She was quiet for a moment , and staring at the orange yellow heat , just said " What ? Kids shouldn't be beaten , they need to be taught ."
After a while , when rolling out the next one , she dusted the flour off her hands , straightened her scarf and said "He just wanted some kindling."