Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The Eagle
It was a small Empty can: a soft drink can, a beer can perhaps. It must have been a can that had once contained beer. We did not have canned soft drinks in
The street was deserted, the city – silent. Man, bird, beast and Nature drowsed waiting for the mid-afternoon to recede. We were normally garrulous, but today’s defeat at the football match had crushed our spirit. We vented our frustration on the can…kicking it aimlessly along as we went. “I wish I had some chilled H2O,” I said to Sumit, trying to show off my recently acquired knowledge of Chemistry. “It is Hydrogen Hydroxide HOH actually,” he corrected me.
The shadow passed over us at just that moment. It covered the whole width of the street. We looked up, surprised by the whoosh of wind over our head. It was fast, and silent in its effortless glide. It scattered a couple of industrious sparrows that were pecking about in among the cobblestones of the mandi for grains. The wings spread out must have spanned five feet or more! It was going too fast to land on the street. Yet the trailing edges wings turned to, braking it gently and effectively. A swerve to the left, a flap or two of the massive wings – and it was up and away.
We were transfixed upon the majestic form – marvelling at it unhurried flight. The helpless prey was trapped in its talons…dripping blood! But somehow it fell out of the grasp of the bird…onto the road before us with a plop. We came onto the splattered remains of what had once been a rat. It had lain bloated and stinking in the overflowing drain water for days…The carcass had simply disintegrated, leaving a piece of rotten flesh in the grip of the surprised bird.
The Moral: FAILURE, however crushing, is Never FINAL!
