Thursday, 18 July 2013

One Legged Crow.

The muser, when he was in his teens and early twenties, was mostly homesick. This manifested, albeit unknowingly, in to a bunking syndrome .That is, at the drop of a hat he would get into a shell and become melancholic. School & college attendance register had many absent marks against the Muser in each academic session/semester. Many a times he had been rebuked by well meaning teachers and lecturers.

Somehow he came through and landed a job in a private company. He had relatives (distant) in the company and yet the homesickness bug did not leave him. He maintained his distinct image at work too and the worst came to the fore at the wrong time.

Those were the days of power shutdowns and Industries were forced to lay-off employees in staggered manner. An employee had to work for 10 days in a month on full salary and the remaining 20/21 days was laid-off with half salary.

This was a golden opportunity for the muser to practice his craft – bunking. The muser normally did not visit his parents on these days but to his uncle (or) aunt’s house. Being a doted child, they did not question even if he overstayed. As a result, when the other employees had only 20/21 days lay-off, he voluntarily extended his lay-off periods by another week.

Initially the management did not take notice of these unauthorized absences. One day three other employees took a similar decision of bunking office (they were of course, first timers). All (including our muser) were called and told in, no uncertain terms that ‘enough was enough’. Feeling guilty but glad, the muser started to go out of the office of the Works manager.

His joy was short lived. The Works Manager told him to wait for few moments. Then, came the avalanche. The Works Manger pulled out the record for unauthorized absence(s).  Being a compassionate man, he said ‘When the company is reeling under a heavy power cuts, this behavior is unacceptable’. The only saving grace was that, for all the short coming s, muser was a technical wizard. The Works Manger told the Muser that, next time around he would no-more be an employee.

With punctured and bruised ego, muser came out of the office and somehow managed to dodge the prying questions of colleagues till end of the day.

When he was overwhelmed with sadness, the muser used to walk aimlessly for miles. He embarked on one such trip that day. The company where he worked was situated near a dam site. He started walking along the protective wall of the dammed area. The low water level mirrored the state of his morale.

Then he happened to see a crow wobbling on single leg. The crow must have lost its other leg in some accident. It was struggling to hop from place to place in search of morsels of food. Once or twice, it over balanced and fell down from the parapet wall, yet it never gave up its quest in searching for morsels.

The setting sun and the stunning performance of the lame crow disturbed the muser greatly. It was not due to pity for the lame crow, but for himself, as despite his faculties he was easily giving-in to impulsive actions based purely on emotional feelings of melancholy or homesickness (which begot what, is still a mystery).

This made him recollect the exploits of fictional character Long John Silver, real life achievers such as Admiral Nelson, Moshe Dayan and M A K Pataudi. To this list, he added the One Legged Crow. A resolve shaped up in his mind. The next day, the muser met the Works Manager and explained the change that had taken place since yesterday‘s meeting (He narrated the struggles of the One Legged Crow and it affecting his psyche).

After some time, the management as well as his friends started wondering why the muser had suddenly become an extrovert and workaholic.

May be three souls knew the secret – The WM, the crow and the Muser.

1 comment:

  1. Getting better or getting worse?
    single leg could have been "one legged"
    left leg or right leg?"

    picture as usual took the cake.words came a mere second.

    ReplyDelete