18
Salonki
remembers the stranger from the village
It was an animal that Salonki had seen
only once before. Salonki had seen it inside the village. It was the time that
she had accompanied her parents to the village. She and her brothers and
sisters had left the nest and had begun to fly just a few days ago. Their
parents had wanted to celebrate the fact that all their young ones had begun to
fly with confidence, and her father had insisted that they go to the village.
He had said that it would be his party. He would treat them to a wonderful
feast.
At the edge of the village was a house
that belonged to the rich sweet-merchant. Just a week before, a family of mice
had successfully made a large hole in the roof of the sweet merchant’s house
and had brought out some sweets to feed upon. This had been seen by a flock of
mynas who had come to rest at that very moment on their evening flight back
from the grassland towards their night roosting trees. Some of those mynas had
gone boldly inside the sweet merchant’s house through the large hole to feed
upon the uncovered sweets.
They had come back to their night
roosting perches in the Peepul tree in the village and had sat drunk after
having eaten too much sweets and drunk too much sugar syrup. They seemed so
happy and so content throughout the night. Salonki’s father had decided to take
his wife and children inside the sweet merchant’s house. That day Salonki’s family had enjoyed
themselves. They had perched on the roof and gone inside the shop, one by one,
and fed upon the nice golden yellow coloured sweets. They had been very tasty.
They had also eaten the dark brown coloured ones floating on sugar syrup. That
syrup had been very intoxicating.
After having eaten more than they
could, the family had flown out of the shop and was resting on the roof. They
could hardly move off from the roof. A nearby banyan tree had its branches
spread over the roof and offered them very welcome shade from the noon sun. The
family had decided to take a quick nap under the shade offered by the banyan
tree. They had been resting peacefully that day. Salonki could still remember
her father and mother smiling very proudly at him and his brothers and sisters.
Salonki could remember the day like it was yesterday.
Suddenly, out of the banyan branches,
a brownish yellow animal had jumped on to the roof and picked up one of
Salonki’s brothers and ran away. They had hardly realised that something was
wrong. By the very next instant that they had realised that a member of their
family had been taken by this brown-yellow animal, it had disappeared from
sight. They had flown up in panic, and gone towards a corner of the village
where they could hear some crows cawing excitedly. There, half hidden under an
unyoked bullock cart, was the brownish yellow animal, sitting quietly, hissing
at the myna family and the crows. There had been no sight of Salonki's brother.
