Panchhi's Flight (Revised)

I run over the plains, rising above the scorched land--broken, burnt, tamed and dry. Sun pulls me close, high in the sky, till I can see a canopy of trees. Whooshing, I plunge into the trees, stirring the branches, kissing the leaves, whispering to the chattering monkeys, rippling even the calm, quiet lake.

This jungle is my deep within. It is my special place; the place where I seek refuge, I seek relief.

I love my lake here--blue like the sky, still and calm; dreamy till I stir it awake. I love the bits of the red mud soil that I can see through a thick undergrowth of plants. I love the smell of the morning dew that shines in the redness of a rising sun.

Some nights here are starry nights. Others are nights of hard rain that washes me and purges me. When the morning mist clears after such rain, new life springs again.

On one such rain, I danced all night. I shook the trees and kept the monkeys awake.

When morning arrived, I was tired. A slow sun was rising far away. The clattering of falling drops was making rhythmic sounds. I perched myself silently on the top of a tree. Here, I met the little Panchhi. I had not seen him in a while. He looked so young, so fresh, and so energetic today.

He called out aloud, "Pavan, I hear you in the murmur of leaves. Tell me you're around."

"Yes dear Panchhi, here I am," I said as I swirled around once more in the leaves.

"It's a beautiful morning. Look at those black tailed monkeys--they jump so chirpily today."

"It's a beautiful morning indeed. But the monkeys jump just as chirpily everyday. Tell me what's in your heart. What makes you so happy, so full of joy?"

"Ah Pavan you read me so well," said Panchhi as he stretched his wings lazily.

"It is for me to know it all, for I was around when none of your forefathers were even born. I was here when the Pandavas drank the water of this lake. I was around when Buddha sat underneath this tree. And Panchhi, Oh Panchhi, I was around too, when your father took his first flight. He looked so much like you."

"Aye, then you already know," said Panchhi in a dejected tone. He had thought he would surprise me. "Today, I shall take my first flight in the sky, my leap into a world so beautiful."

"Wrrrr, don't I see that you're excited."

"Yes Pavan, excited, I am. For this day I have waited all my life; to fly afar and to fly high. I practiced every morning flying from one branch to another, testing my wings in the shallow heights. And now you see how strong my wings have become."

This time Panchhi spread his wings with all his might.

"But I feel apprehensive too. I shall leave my friends, my family, and the nest behind. I shall go into the skies. I have loved them from my nest, but I have never ventured there. And, I know not how you shall behave, I know not if the clouds will pour, I know not if it will be too cold. I know not if it is a good day to fly."

"Fear you not oh, dear Panchhi, for no day is good and no day is bad. The day you are prepared is the day for you."

Cheered again, Panchhi saw his nest one last time and then roared into the sky. I rushed with him for I loved the sky too.

At first we saw the world he knew--a clutter of leaves, the black tailed monkeys, and the blue lake in the middle of the trees. And then, as we rose higher, Panchhi saw the whole forest for the first time in his life.

"Oh Pavan, I never knew there existed so many lakes, so many trees."

"Keep going higher my little one and you shall see so much more."

Higher still, it was so cold. Even I could not rise beyond a point, but Panchhi's heart was longing still.

"Pavan, Pavan it's so refreshing here. So cold. So nice. So beautiful. But what do I see down below? Is that a huge lake?"

The color of the land was no longer green. Blue of the ocean was beginning to mix in too. A riot of color filled the sky and the earth.

"Yes my Panchhi, that's a huge lake. Lovely are its colors, aren't they? Hey, but I see that your wings still strive to reach higher skies, and I am too tired. I cannot climb any further. If you want now, you must go alone."

Panchhi continued to fly higher still. I watched from below as he floated by. The sun had circled the sky by now and was beginning to dip in the horizon. Clouds below were turning grey. Suddenly, when I thought Panchhi's wings had to make no effort to fly any more, when the view was most beautiful and colors most intense, Panchhi began to descend.

When he passed me by, the excited look of his face was gone.

"Why do you descend now, Oh Panchhi? I thought you would fly all day and night."

"No Pavan, not any more. I just want to get back to my nest."

Gradually, we descended back into a forest. But this was a different forest.

Sitting on a branch, Panchhi wailed, "This is not my forest Pavan. Look at the leaves, they are so small. And look at those monkeys, they have no black tails. Oh Pavan, the knower of all, please take me back to my forest, my nest, where I belong."

I sat quietly on another branch and whispered into Panchhi's ears, "Worry you not, Oh dear. Look at those leaves, they are green too. And see those monkeys, don't they jump as well?"

Panchhi kept quiet. He looked at the distant stars and the dark night. In his heart, he felt depressed.

"Pavan, all my life I wanted to fly. For that dream, I lived till now. I had always known that flying in high skies was my destiny, and now I sit here on a branch, not knowing what I shall do."

Gradually, in the darkness of that night, Panchhi tried to imagine all the colors he had seen while he flew. And he began to realize that the colors that filled the skies filled the forest too; that the same brush painted the skies and the earth.

His heart filled with joy again. He knew that he would build a nest next morning, and that he would fly again to the highest skies if ever he felt like it. That this tree he was on was the same as any tree he had ever been on. That flying in the highest skies was the same as sitting on this perched branch.

Silently, I whooshed into another forest.