The Golden Bird


Once upon a time, there was a young and gorgeous bird.
She had candy red eyes that contrasted so strikingly with her snow-white feathers.
Her tiny, bifurcated feet were gracefully in line with her blonde beak which was curved at the tip.
Inexplicably, she had a golden ring thrown around her neck which shined intensely throughout the day. 
And at night, from a distance, one could see it glimmer like a star-studded necklace.

She lived inside a massive iron cage.
It was so huge that at times, it created an illusion of space and in her ecstasy, she would flutter her wings and take a leap, only to get smashed against the thick, hard bars and crash on the floor.

This bird had a unique and amazing trait which set her apart from the rest of her breed.
She survived on gold.
Every morning, her master would push apart the heavy gates of her cage and throw a handful of glittering gold coins inside.
She would hurry and start nibbling at them hungrily.
The speed with which she devoured her staple food was just unbelievable.
The more she got, the more she wanted.
The mere sight of scattered gold coins around her, the tinkling sound, the exotic taste – all this gave her an adrenaline rush. 
There were times when the master delayed or refused to feed her just to assert his supremacy.
And on all such occasions, she would feel utterly miserable, insecure and fearful.
The regular delivery of gold assured her that this indeed was the most important commodity in her life.

People from remotest corners of the world gathered daily to have a look at this astonishing bird.
The absence of any rationale for presence of a luminous ring around her neck convinced most of them that she was a divine creature.
It was really an incredible sight to see her consume the yellow metal so effortlessly.

The master charged heavily for the tickets and earned much more than what he spent on her. He was indeed an astute businessman.
One early morning, as he opened up the cage and tossed some coins inside, he forgot to put the latch and trotted away to catch on some more sleep, a lazy fellow that he was.

The moment our Golden Bird spotted this lapse, her heart skipped a beat.
A whiff of fresh air struck against her body and touched her very soul.
She took one hesitant step towards the gate.
Outside, a huge, orange sun rested on the horizon, as if unsure about leaving the comforts of the previous night. But as it slowly overcame its inhibitions, its oblong rays entered the cage and cast a warm glow around the bird.
She looked back at the gold coins burning like fire in the bright sunlight.
Then, she glanced outside at the rising ball of flame.
Something moved her deeply.
And with all her might, she broke through the intimidating walls of that dark dungeon, crossed the threshold and dashed into the boundless space outside.

As she spread her wings and soared high, she soaked into a kind of delight she had never known before.
Her heart leapt with joy as she twirled and whirled in the air like a flying kite.
Her wings seemed to enlarge and cover the whole earth.
The endless sky with infinite opportunities dared her to dream.
As she cut across the boundaries of that damned cage, many doors opened up inside her being which she was never aware of.

She also saw other birds, hovering around her.
‘How happy they are?’ she wondered, especially when they consumed just seeds, nuts, fruits or small insects.
‘They don’t survive on gold like me. They are not as beautiful as I am. None of them has a golden ring around their necks. Neither the whole world is turning up to watch them in awe and wonder. But even then, they are so cheerful and full of life. What is it that they have which I don’t possess?’
She could not understand.

Even though she was enjoying herself fully, after a while, she started feeling uncomfortable.
‘What if the master finds out? He may stop feeding me altogether to teach me a lesson. And who knows, I may die in this strange environment where birds eat such weird things!’

With tension and insecurities tugging at her heart, she decided to return.
As she dived down, a growing pain ripped her apart.
She felt as if she was going against her nature, as if she was giving up something of great value.
But finally, her fears won and she dragged herself back to her enclosure.

She resumed her routine from next day onward, eating gold and being admired by millions of people.
Her sense of security and worldly status was back.
But a feeling of emptiness kept nagging her constantly.
She had finally realized that what she experienced that day was a tremendous sense of freedom to be what she was.
And this unforgettable taste of liberty was much higher than any amount of gold that she could amass because gold would keep her chained inside an obscure cell but a courageous flight into the limitless sky would set her free forever.

But alas!
Fate has its own designs.
Time passed by.
Seasons changed.
From being naïve and young, our ladybird turned into a mature adult.
Her fame shot up and so did the quantity of gold that was offered to her every day.
But she felt poorer and all the more frustrated.
She secretly longed for the blue sky but consigned herself consciously to a black hole.

After many years, one early morning, as her lethargic master lobbed some more gold coins inside her cage as a matter of routine and slithered away, he forgot to latch the iron gate once again.
As soon as she noticed this, our Golden Bird experienced a rapturous thrill running through her spine.

‘Can this be true?’ she asked herself in disbelief.
The moment she had been waiting for had finally arrived.
She glanced at the gold coins littered around her and then she peeped at a flock of birds whizzing past her prison.
She strode forward and was about to step out when she was overtaken by doubt and retreated back.
The gate was still lying open…


Dear Reader

Help me complete this story by giving your suggestions in the comment box.
What would you do if you were in place of the Golden Bird?
Would you fly out or would you choose to remain inside the cage?

Comments

  1. A nicely written story. Golden bird should leave cage to make herself guilt free to enjoy the lifestyle of freedom.

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    1. Thanks for your courageous suggestion Rajesh!

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  2. I agree with rajesh. There might be better opportunities in open sky.

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  3. The bird has two major options:
    Case 1: To leave the cage: The bird will suffer a lot of hunger and will search for gold coins as food. But, at last she will
    start searching for other options. She saw a lot birds gathered in an open place and taking some wheat grains. Seeing that she slowily advanced herself towards the bird crowd and started adopting of taking new food habits. There she found good company of a male bird and started happily living together with her kids. Few months later she lost all her beauty and golden shine of body after eating only grains, but she was very pleased by her heart after getting the freedom of a new normal life like all other birds.
    Moral: Taking risk may give you some loss, which the bird faced by losing her lusture; but freedom and normal life made her more happier within the soul.
    Case 2: Return to Cage: The bird returns to her cage again to secure herself for nice goldy foods and to keep her beauty. Suddenly, a natural calamity happens in the area where the golden bird used to live. Her wealthy master lost all of his wealth. He was not in a position to give gold coins to eat every day. But, since she became famous world wide by that time; her master sold her to a foreign business man after taking a hefty amount of money. The greedy business man thought that the golden bird ate so much gold in the last few years, therefore she might be having a lot of gold coins inside her stomach. He killed the bird to get all the gold she consumed in single shot; but he found nothing.
    Moral: God has given two chances to the bird to escape. But due to the fear of hardship and unknown future she decided to stay back in the safe environment of the cage. But the safest place may not always be the safe always. Therefore in life, taking risk is also necessary to get freedom of joy.

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    1. Thanks Sourav for such a detailed study of the story.You have indeed thrown some fresh insights on the matter.

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  4. Golden bird should move out of the cage. She has to adopt herself for New life style.

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  5. I visualize myself keeping in the place of Golden Bird and find quite difficult to provide any concluded remarks. However it is pretty good to have free bird in the open sky, but it is also sure in the present scenario we have force to struggle for existence.
    Everybody (human, animal or bird) knows their respective way of freedom, but who could make to reach that extreme point is the winner.
    We, all reach in our way miles long and leaving the same and retunes to our dream nest is again a daydream.
    Hence, I could rather say it is an individual perception and cannot be concluded in the present environment as a whole.

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    1. Thanks Surendra! You have identified yourself with the Golden Bird to a great extent and understand her well.

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  6. I feel that the bird would fly out to meet her desires and aspirations..

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  7. Without any doubt the bird should take this opportunity to get herself freedom for the rest of the life. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
    Freedom means a lot. Freedom to express, freedom to select and it is feeling which is very difficult to express in terms of words and also cannot be exchanged with other emotions like pseudo fame and glory. The gorgeous bird has already lost the precious time due to her fear of sustainability for which she has been regretting. Now she has got the second chance which very few gets and she should use this opportunity

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  8. Immediate response would be - and the bird flied to it's freedom and was happy ever after.
    Although, I doubt about the gold for survival.

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  9. Great ability of writing and great piece of narratve voice. This is one of the best pieces I read among your 26 stories collection in Presioner of War.

    Keep it up!

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  10. Depending on what note would you like to end the story my comments are as follows:-

    1. To end it pleasantly - the bird must get out and relive the moments of pleasure she had experienced the first time she had ventured out. It will also give you a chance to narrate some more experiences of the bird in adjusting to the new environment and end it with the .... and they lived happily ever after....line.
    2. To end it with a hint of remorse - it can return to the cage and there is nothing more that can be narrated unless the man dies or sells the bird to someone else or somebody steals the bird from the man.
    3. The third angle that can be brought in is the inability of the man to get the gold (demonetisation - Ha ha or because of an ailment) coupled with a change of heart wherein he frees the bird but the bird returns only to keep him company for old time sake as he has no one else to take care of him. Thus making the man realise and repent the cruelty he had meted out to the bird due to his greed for riches.

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  11. Option 3 shifts the focus to the master and introduces a new element.
    Thank you so much sir for reading Golden Bird and generating various options.I appreciate.

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  12. Very beautiful story! I would like to end this story like this...

    Courageously, she stepped out and flew in the sky as never to return back. She was a priced possession to her master but her freedom mattered more to her now. She started enjoying the vast blue sky and the world seemed small in front of her freedom....

    But in little time she realized the difference between the reality and the fantasized world. The reality was too harsh and horrified...

    So, she decided to return back to her cosy and safe place. Next day again the latch of the cage was open, however this time it was left open by her master not due to laziness but by choice. After that the latch was always open, she used to go out and navigate the sky whenever she wished to. She was happy with her limited but accepted freedom.

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  13. This concept of limited but accepted freedom indeed makes you think hard. The way you have written the end, I can see that there is a writer in you and the aim of this blog is help you discover that person. Shalini, Thank you so much for your response.

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  14. Freedom and slavery are just relative terms and are the opposite sides of the same coin.
    The bird would fly and be free from a small cage but will move to another cage.

    One who is attached (i.e. attached to objects, emotions, etc) feels the clutches of freedom or slavery ,but the one who is free from all the bonds can never be caged.

    It is the attachment that makes the bird caged, once it lets it go, then there is nothing that can bound the bird.

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  15. That's a great insight.
    And one who has given up attachment, can relish the truth of your statement fully.

    Thanks a lot.

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  16. If I were in the bird’s situation, I would choose to fly. The bird unquestionably spent a considerable amount of its timeline in the service of others. It was an object to produce profit and fame for an ample duration and now should be the time for that beautiful bird to do something purely for itself without a twinge of guilt and hesitation. It was the time for the bird to finally, simply fly. We can’t deny one universal truth that we are born for a purpose. Our Universe and this nature created everything for a purpose. If our little bird was not meant to fly, nature wouldn’t have bestowed it with those divine, fluttery and light wings. Those wings symbolize flight. No amount of gold, attention and luxury is at par with the pure happiness of doing something just for ourselves. We, as humans, sometimes face a similar situation. We are afraid of moving on, or to be precise, of moving forward in our lives because we are comfortable in following the trails. We always keep on doubting ourselves that our decision to lead our lives differently from the set paradigm will eventually cost us our success, relationships, happiness or whatever we possess currently. But according to me, humans are meant to move on, else they would’ve been fixed like plants or mountains or other static objects. So when life gives a chance, it is our spiritual responsibility to evolve ourselves on a different plane of intellect.
    Yes, we can’t ignore the reality that the bird, by now, is well aligned to be enslaved and not used to fly which is its intrinsic ability. So may be, in the beginning or gradually, there might be situations that the bird will get tired of flying or it will not get the comfort and luxury of the cage. May be, it will regret its decision to step out of the cage. But according to me, that is okay. There is lots of peace that we gather when we do something all by ourselves, without adding structure to our deeds. The joy of flying across the miles with its own species, exploring the horizon and the vastness of the sky, in itself will be a rejuvenating experience altogether. And my personal belief and undying hope is, that the power of positivity that the bird will feel doing something that it always wanted to do will definitely beat all the situations that will try to weaken the bird’s flight.
    “Let your faith be always greater than your fears”, is that one belief that might help that golden bird to take the decision to fly and prove it right.

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  17. Hi Damini!

    I like your idea that the bird should be free from any kind of guilt while enjoying her freedom.But it requires great understanding on her part since most birds are afraid of doing anything for their own happiness.The need to conquer fear is well placed but believe me, it's a matter of practice.Only when you leave the cage, can you overcome your fear of the unknown.

    Thanks for your detailed review.

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  18. In my opinion bird should fly away as freedom is irreplaceable !

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  19. Freedom prevails!!! I would like to fly out of the cage.

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  20. is it me or does she look like a white version of Khloe Kardashian??hmmm why not look here

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  21. I really like your take on the issue. I now have a clear idea on what this matter is all about.. cockatoo for sale

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  22. Thanks for reading The Golden Bird.

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  23. Relatable to everyone daily life .

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    1. Yes Shilpi. This choice between freedom and fear stares at us everyday.

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  24. Great Story ,It Feels like to tell bird, "Fly there is beautiful world beyond this cage". But we do same things in our life. We have build our own cage. Relatable story. Keep it up.

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    1. Thanks Karishma. You are very right when you say we have built our own cages. That's how we are living.

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  25. Robbert Allenn15 May 2022 at 06:47

    Fabulous story. It's a push to introspection of the reality in our own lives.
    It's relevant to all of us who are in the Cage of the Comfort Zone. Can we really leave the safe shores of certainty and see the vast variety of opportunity beyond. It's our ability to move from Thinking to taking Action which is never easy in real life.

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    1. Thanks Robbert. It's actually an introspection. Can we move away from a false sense of security towards freedom? Can we say YES to life?

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  26. Very beautiful story, every ward is very beautifully placed.Birds will fly in the sky, no matter how precious and beautiful the cage is, it is a four-walled cage.And the sky is very big and has millions of virtues, Flying in the sky is the bird's own peace and happiness

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    1. Thanks Rahat. You are right. It is the real nature of a bird to fly in the sky. But generally, we are afraid to move out of our cages.

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  27. We must be ready to face the hard ship of life to be successful. Also your freedom is important. So the bird should fly out and face the challenges.

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    1. Sure sir. We just need the courage to get out of our comfort zone.

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  28. And yes very well written story.

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    1. Hello Manish uncle👋👋
      She should fly away in the open sky and should have a new life style and should fly away from the prison as God has gave her chances again but instead of gold coins she would get grains and other food to eat as other birds. And she should change her eating habits.

      I think her state is below average .
      Thank you for writing this amazing creative story

      By Mariyam Najam
      13 years

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    2. Thank you so much Mariam for reading The Golden Bird. You are just 13 and still you have been able to get the message so clearly. This certainly is a story of freedom which is of utmost value to all of us.

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