Leaflets From My Life - The Story Of Red Bird Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon

When I was little,
My mother charmed me with delightful stories.
She knew I was enchanted by fairy tales.
And I would sit up with rapt attention
Listening to her
And hugging her!
My Mother, a fair lady with a royal countenance,
Long shapely eyes like lotus petals,
As envisaged in the Indian Miniature paintings.
I would just watch her twinkling eyes with wonder!

The most memorable story
That got deeply etched in my mind is
The story of a red bird!
The red bird she said was
Always keeping a watch over me!
In fact, the red bird was always following me too.
I was not exactly a docile child,
I refused to obey easily,
I had this wild streak of a wanderer,
Not to be confined indoors!

Often, I would run outdoors
I loved the nature and its cool breeze,
I was like a gypsy!
I found great pleasure in roaming around
Amidst flowers to a catch a butterfly
Or to watch a squirrel scuttling up and down a tree
With trr-ee-trr-ee shrieking whistle,
Or to simply sit under a tree watching
The pretty birds on the tree tops!
I almost felt like Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli!

My mother, so fond of me,
Kept calling my name,
Perhaps, a hundred times a day.
She always wondered where I was running off to.
But red bird stories kept me glued to my mother.
The red bird she pointed out to me
Was like a teacher, a disciplinarian!
The red bird only liked children
Who obeyed their parents, studied well in school,
Played only at appropriate time-not the whole day!

When I grew into a teen aged girl,
My mother stopped telling me the red bird stories!
One day, she gifted me with a metallic lamp beautifully carved
Like a bird. It was the symbol of a red bird -
Lessons that my mother taught me!
Though my mom is no more with me bodily,
Her spirit lives through the bird lamp which I have treasured.
I look at it every morning!
My mother in the garb of the red bird prevents me from falling
And guides me through a path of divine light!