Big Bird

As much as I try to write about recent events I keep going back to my childhood which I think was more exciting and eventful.  Not because there so many great adventures but because when I look back now and remember how differently I saw the world then and how all the stories I read influenced me.  I was a story lover ever since I can remember.

So today I thought of sharing this incident that occurred when I was about seven or eight.  I grew up in a small town that had vast field lands and a small streams running by.  It was a safe and peaceful place to grow up in, as a kid I would wander off into the fields or play fishing in the small stream with my friends.  Some of them were skilled at fishing and caught more than a couple fish. I don't remember being able to get any but i do faintly remember to clumsily drop a fish back that my friend had caught!! I was only allowed to hold the small jar of water to hold the fish.

During summers our little gang would wander into the fields and spend an entire day gathering raw mangoes or cashews.  We would climb the low branches of trees and sit in them or sometimes make a swing out of rope and cloth. Those were some days!

Once upon a summer evening I wandered into the fields alone I was bored sitting at home and decided to take a walk all by myself.  When I was in the middle of the farmland I happened to look up and saw a huge bird perched up on the coconut tree.  It had a long neck without feathers and a bent bent beak and huge wings - It was a Vulture.  I realized it was bigger than than me and I froze.  I did not want to move lest I should attract the attention of the bird.  I remembered a story I had read some time ago it was about this merchant lying to his friend that his some had been carried away by the Vulture.  The story did say that he had lied to his friend but when I saw the bird and that it was bigger than me I seemed like a possibility.  I was alone and wouldn't be able to call for help if anything happened.  I stood there for a while without making a move hoping the bird would fly away.  It was still sitting perched up on the tree.

I decided I couldn't wait there any longer so I started taking a slow small step backward while my eyes were fixed on the bird and then another step backward and a third step back. Then I turned around and ran till I was in the house.  I told my mum about the huge vulture i saw and if I hadn't run I might have been carried away and that the story might have been partially true. My mum  quietly heard me out and then burst out laughing telling me no matter how short I was the vulture wouldn't have attacked me as they devour only dead creatures.  I refused to believe that and imagined I was lucky to have escaped... until i grew up a little more :)