There is always an interesting question that could not be answered by anyone. Which came first an egg or a chicken? For a debate, it may be a curious query to be solved. But in Indian society, when a woman fails to have a fertilised egg, life may not be as normal as it should be. being eggless
Fire in the mountain, run, run
Fire in the mountain, run, run
Constantly repeating those lines in the chorus made our tongues dry and yearn for a sip of water. Yet, no one wanted to move away from the circle and miss the fun.
“Can we go and drink some water?” Anu argued.
“Yes, we will run and drink and return in the next five minutes.”
Summer holidays are the time to rejoice your freedom. Exams are written, schools closed, and children find extra time to play and play and play forever until their mothers yell calling them inside and have dinner.
The mill was silent on a Sunday. Without the sound of machines, they had a chance to be on their own. While playing, someone pointed to the bright horizons of distant hills.
“Hi, look there, forest fire” A voice screamed with excitement.
“Today we learned forest fires. Our teacher explained everything in detail.” Anu explained with her eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Forest fires during summer are dangerous. Grass fires are the most dangerous.”
The next five minutes were spent in silence every one looking at the bright flames that flickered at a distance. Anu brought her binoculars and they took turns to watch the fire. Though they couldn’t feel the extreme heat of the leaping tongues of fire that grew with every blow of the heavy wind, they understood how dangerous forest fires would be.
***
Though Anu in her mid-fifties wanted desperately to join her young colleagues in the trekking trip that was arranged to celebrate Women’s Day, she could not join them. Some of her friends commented on what could an old owl do among young people and why she wanted to spoil their merriment. This disheartened her to give a lame excuse for not joining them.
One day she met one of her old friends who requested her to accompany her to the town, where her young colleagues would go for trekking. Anu accepted her request immediately.
Anu and her friend left Chennai by bus and reached the place at dawn. After visiting the temple, they were having their lunch in a nearby hotel. To her surprise, her young colleagues were also having lunch there.
“What a surprise! Mam! You’re here!”
“We were told you couldn’t join us” Anu explained that it was not planned earlier but she would be happy to be there with them.
“I could not accompany you, but could wish luck on your trekking.”
The hills looked mesmerizingly beautiful and Anu wished she could explore it. But, there is always danger in what appears to be extremely beautiful. Dangers lurk along with it.
Anu could sense uneasiness in the air when her colleagues waved her goodbye.
“I may not see them again” The sudden overpowering thought grabbed her. Her hands shivered and legs felt weak.
*****
It was too hot on that afternoon. Anu dozed off for a while in the car. And she had a dream that shook her from sleep.
“Mam, please save us” The warm afternoon air vibrated with the screaming pleas from those who were engulfed in the fire.
******
Waiting at the mortuary, Anu could not erase those images of chicken being rolled above the slow fire. She vaguely remembered her pre-university zoology practical classes, when they dissected frogs and cockroaches.
The smell of charred bodies made her think about the days that she remembered how her dad who after plucking all the feathers on the hen, showed it on the fire to get rid of small stubs of hair. He rolled the chicken this way and that way taking care not to get the chicken get charred.
****
“Stay quiet.” The metal bushel half filled with sand revealed a brooding hen sitting on a clutch of eggs; the eggs protectively covered by her wings. She removed the covering lid on the metal bushel.
“Where are the eggs?”
“They are here.” She lifted the wings and showed the eggs under the hen.
“When will the chicks come out?”
“In another ten days. But you shouldn’t disturb the eggs often.”
“Why?” Anu asked.
“The chicks won’t grow properly.”
“Leave the water container inside the bushel. The hen may need water.”
The hen drank water without changing her position. The hen rarely came out of the bushel. It also slowly changed places of the eggs, so that they will receive heat uniformly, and hatch after 21 days.
One day her dad called her while playing. He took an egg and placed it near Anu’s ear.
“Can you hear the chick?” Anu could hear the soft tap of a chick inside the egg.
“Yes.” She beamed with a smile.
“In one or two days chicks will hatch.”
After two days, when Anu peeped through the lid, she could hear the soft sound of a chick. When they counted the number of chicks, they found one egg unhatched. When Anu threw the unhatched egg near the fence, it hit the ground and broke, with a nauseating smell that spread along with the remains of messy tissues.
***
It was a nightmare for Anu to visit her young colleagues who suffered burns of varied degrees and were under treatment. Unfortunately, very few escaped from the fire with minimal wounds. The nauseating smell of burned tissues and the medicines made her feel dizzy and heartbroken.
One of her young colleagues, Saranya, despite pain called her near.
“Mam, I need some help from you.”
“Yes”
“I want to donate my eggs.”
***
Though married for more than ten years, Anu was not blessed to be a mother. Days unfolded into various visits to the labs and scan centers. But her husband bluntly refused to accompany her. Anu deprived of eggs could not conceive and her husband’s ego prevented her from trying new methods. It is a world where some unfortunate women live.
Growing up in an environment enriched with colours of nature adorned with sounds of machines, I enjoyed life with all challenges. Nature is always a great teacher that teaches empathy to live and let live others. Though I am now living in an urban environment, the lesson that nature taught me motivates and allows me to keep on writing. I will always remember the cool afternoons in the shades of trees that made me write more on love.