Life's vagaries

Gliding on heights of success, seldom do we realise that a small snag can pull us down.The rendezvous was a place in Ulsoor precincts. And recently, I was waiting for a friend at that place, from where we had decided to go moseying around the nearby mall.

As I waited, engulfed by ineffable ennui, I craned my neck in all directions, to get sweeping view of things happening around. At that instant, rather an unusual thing occurred right before me. A raven-black crow, winging upward, suddenly got one of its wings snagged onto the thread of a flying kite, which in turn had got entangled on ramified branches of a massive tree. The winged creature wriggled hard to extricate itself, but in vain.

While some passers-by were impassive enough to ignore the sight of the ensnared bird; some stood rooted in the same spot, with gazes transfixed on it, as though watching an exotic creation at an art exhibition. During that moment, a short-statured guy, who was passing by, happened to see the bird, wiggling on the kite string.

Soon he got busy, scouting for some long slender sticks on the sidewalk, carpeted by twigs and dry leaves, jettisoned by the tree.

Finally, when he was able to ferret out some four of them, he tried fixing one another lengthwise, using discarded metal wires. Then he borrowed a sharp knife from some shop, and tied it at one extreme end of the improvised super-long stick. Holding another end, he started clambering upon the terrace of a building, adjacent to the tree.

Just one faulty move, he’d have fallen below on the construction rubble, interspersed with splintered glass shards and other serrated metallic pieces. Indeed I was overawed looking at this person’s indomitable spirit, and most importantly, his care and concern for another life. At last, when he was successful in his pertinacious feat, there was a tornado of applause from the onlookers. The freed bird, flapped its wings, swooped down slightly, and suddenly took off on an upward flight.

Even today, whenever I think of this incident, unwittingly I start reflecting on life’s vagaries and quirkiness. Did the carefree-bird, soaring high in the sky, ever think that a thing, as trifling as a tenuous thread, could severely shackle its flight? In the same way, when we are gliding on the dizzying heights of deadly success/happiness, often we get so swept off by its heady intoxication that seldom do we realise a small snag is suffice to pull us down. Yes, if we are fortunate, we’d find demigods, who’d bail us out of the baleful situation, to ride high once again. Else, higher one rises, greater is always the thud when one falls down!