Yesterday I was watching some investigative documentary on NG .It was close to midnight when I heard something- it was coming from the dining. My maid, Maadhu and I looked at eachothers faces with contorted facial expressions as if to ask, ‘Did you hear that too?’. I am squintin at the dark dining area to see if I could make out whats making that toy-plane-propeller sound. Maadu too gets into investigative mode, and we discover that there has been an unlikely intruder into our home… a dragon fly.
Poor thing has been trying to release from our unintentional captivity. It would try hard to find a way out. It would try and try and try till it gets tired and rests a while before it starts to try all over again. Maadu opened her mouth to suggest that we kill it since its sittin on my dinin wall- our chance at putting an end to a 'threat'… Maadu was under the impression that it would bite… It reminded me thats what I thought when I saw a dragon fly for the first time when I was a kid. It pretty late for Maadhu to still have this misconception. The dragon fly’s size and unconventional looks, earns it wrong judgment … at least in the eyes of children. It cut Maadu short, just as my Mom did once upon a time, to educate her that it was harmless and that it would find its way out on its own. I get back to watching the program accompanied by the occasional sound of desire for liberation. The program comes to an end at half past 1 and I go to snuggle in bed. I go to wash my face and when I come back what do I see? The dragon fly is shifted the location of its search for freedom to my bedroom right next to the window. Its been able to locate the window in my room but cant get out since my dad has nailed down a net to prevent any mosquito attacks. That’s when I started wondering How did this dragon fly get in, in the first place?!!! My dad had turned this house into a fortress which protects its people from the irritating itchy-scratchy mosquito bites – leaving the windows in the hall, all the rest have immovable nets in place. The one in the hall, can slide to open and close. Though that window is open, the nets haven’t been opened since two days… then how did this big dragon fly get in? I should report this to my dad, to bring to his notice a possible leak in his design! Well any way, if the dragonfly was smart enough to locate my window, it would be smart enough to find the window in the hall… I go to sleep.
Come today morning and guess what?! I am busy checkin my mails and strolling thru the bloggo-vard in the morning, when I hear that familiar propeller sound again. The dragon fly has disappointed me… it hadn’t found its way out and is still trying at my window. This time you could make out that it was real tired trying all night. It must have been baffled at the thought , “There is a breeze hitting me, there is the smell of fruits and flowers, I can hear the call of my loved one… but why cant I get past this opening?”- sweetheart that’s simply cos your too big for it. I feel proud that it tried so hard yet so sorry that it hasn’t attained freedom. I want to see it free. I wonder whether there is a way I could guide it out. My brilliant brain thinks of a news paper. I strategise my plan of action: I would wait till its tired and lies on the floor, then I would scoop it up in the news paper and take it to the window in the sitting room and release it. But there might be a problem, the dragonfly might have the tendance to flutter and fly about if I have to carry her on the newspaper. So I polish the idea a lil further, and decide to roll the newspaper into a cylinder big enough to carry it safely without damaging its wings. But how do I get it into the cylinder? As if on cue, the dragonfly flies up to the window net and clutches on to it. I slowly approach her with my newly invented contraption and slowly and carefully get it to circle around our dragonfly. It feels a lil awkward ar first and refuses to get it, but it fights its apprehensions and decides to trust my design and settles in my dragonfly-carrier. I walk fast to the sitting room, careful not to shake and hoping that any insecurity in her/him wont prompt him/her to fly out of my ingenious design. I open the window with the suave and sophisticated ease of 007, then open up my dragonfly-carrier out to the skies. With no shadow of doubt, wasting no time the dragonfly flies out to settle on a tree nearby. Along with it, something in me found release too, something burst out… I don’t know what it exactly was…joy, relief, pride, but by the time its effects rippled to my face, it formed a smile that would make my orthodontist proud (since that would save him and me the trouble of putting a stent-like thing into my mouth to keep it wide open). But why the hell bother on trying to dissect and bisect the feeling?.. all that matters is that it felt GOOD.
The halo around my horns is eye-blinding, today. :) Bonjour, mes amis!
