Winged Happiness

It was a cool and breezy morning. We were at the Butterfly Park in TATR (Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve). We walked around and saw butterflies in huge numbers. At the end of the park was a mini greenhouse with flowering plants and butterflies. My mom walked around to the side of the greenhouse and saw a bird laying on the ground with its feet up in the air, almost dead. She called out to us and we rushed to see. At first glimpse the bird appeared dead. But as we got closer, we noticed it breathing lightly. It made slight movements as it was probably alarmed by us surrounding it. We all dropped whatever we were holding and rushed to look for water. There was no signs of water nearby, that is, until my dad noticed a water hose that was most likely used for watering the plants. But the tap was nowhere in sight. He instructed me to lift the pipe slightly so as to get out any water left in the pipe. He cupped his hand to collect the water that was dripping out, and poured whatever trickling water was left, onto the bird.

It immediately jerked into its senses and stood upright as if it had just been woken up from sleep by a large mug of water. He returned back to the water hose to get more water, but this process would take a long while. So I looked around for anything that would hold at least a little bit of water. I found a mug at the back of the greenhouse and rushed back. We collected water in the mug and took it to the bird. The mug had a hole at the bottom and some tissue had been stuffed into it, in a feeble attempt to make the mug useable. We used that hole and tissue to slightly drop water on its tiny beak for it to drink. It drank a little but was still very dazed. My brother touched it, stroked it on its head. It didn't seem scared, or maybe it was just too tired to even react. After about 10 minutes when he reached out to stroke it again, it gave a sudden start and flew straight at my mom, causing her to screech, and then flew over her head and onto a tree barely few feet away. It perched there on a branch under the morning sun and my dad seized this opportunity to be its personal photographer and clicked pics of the little bundle of feathers.

We were all so happy that we got to start the day doing a good deed, by saving a tiny life. My mom was so happy that she started crying tears of joy. That's when we knew that we will return back home with so many happy memories, that when recalled, will fill us with immense joy.