You are never ready

You'll never know how much you'll miss someone until you
actually miss them. No matter how much you anticipate and mentally prepare,
their absence proves too much sometimes.



Dressed in the garb of experience, life teaches you many
things.But life's lessons are not easily understood.Our human tragedy is
that we are unable to comprehend our experience as it slips through our
fingers, we can't hold on to it,and the more time passes,the harder it gets.



I feel guilty to admit that I once owned a pair of parrots as
pets.They were white beaked parrots bought at a fair for a mere 600
rupees.Can we ever buy or own lives ?Is life so cheap that it can be bought
in a market ?Apparently yes.



But I was just a kid.



They were the happiest days of my
life...I would spend long a long and lazy summer with my new caged
companions. I would fuss over them, and try to keep them entertained by
taking the cage out into the garden , or feeding them with their favorite
snacks. I was overjoyed as spent my time with my new found friends.



But my happiness did not last long.

The male parrot fell seriously ill. We
rushed him to the vet , who after one wary glance pronounced that the parrot
would not live to see the end of the week. The parrot had stopped eating and
drinking completely as if he had accepted his fate and his inevitability.



I was devastated.



A few days later I heard the female parrot screeching frantically and as I
ran towards the cage I saw what I had feared the most.

The male parrot was lying dead and cold on the floor of the
cage.



Death is a difficult concept for a ten year old to understand but we all
seem to understand it's implications.



I too had realized somewhere in my ten year old mind that I would never
see my dear friend again.



I felt this heavy sadness weighing me down and unknown to me tears ran down
my eyes as I ran to tell my mother .I was so embarrassed that I was crying
that I tried to present a brave dry face when giving mom the bad news ,but
then helplessly burst into sobbing fits of tears.





What was more painful was the plight of the surviving parrot. Day in and day
out, she would screech and scream and scurry about the cage mindlessly,
overcome and overwhelmed by grief. She was inconsolable. Her grief and
anguish were unbearable.



We had to take a hard decision.



Now correct me if I'm wrong but .

It is said that if you love someone, then you must set them free.

If they come back, it is because they love you.

If they don't , then it is because their love was never yours to begin with.



So we opened the cage and set her free.

She stepped out tentatively, and cautiously tasted her new found freedom.

Though she found her freedom frightening and exhilarating at the same time
she stepped out bravely and never looked back.



She flew away and never came back.



I never found out what happened to her.



But from that moment on , I promised myself that I'd never imprison anyone
with my expectations.

After all, if you love someone, won't you set them free ?

(And If you love me , won't you let me go ?)


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