When I was sitting around beside the Mosque on a full moon night, I vouched for the downtrodden, sightless and hoary man who greeted me by citing no words as if he were dumb. He managed himself to sit near me. He smiled in tears! He was looking at the moon with thirsty eyes!
Occasionally, he carped with God and was beseeching for his lost bird which he was gifted by his deceased father.
“God never listens to me and let me be ignored.” he often lamented.
The gifted bird was confined in a Mosque. He and I always sit beside the mosque to see the Moon chatting with the caged bird with tears and smiles!
I was always stunned to look at the aged man beading the rosary at every passing night. He was always silent as if he were the God! I asked him a great many questions, and he replied some only.
Sometimes, he hinted at the moon when I asked him why he visits the mosque at every night. He looked at the caged bird and the moon as if one of them were the God. He longed to know who the God was.
After passing many hours with the old man at the night, the nights turned into days, months into years and years into decades, I could feel the old blind man struggling to get the innocent and caged bird free from the tyrants, but to not avail.
I remember the night when he posed some questions; “What if the water speaks stupid words like humans do? What if sun gets bribe as the educated masses do? What if stars marry birds, so do the cats? What if we breathe without oxygen? What if we are left to be educated as illiterate? What if human beings are caged instead of the innocent birds? What if birds go to schools to aquire education instead of human beings? What if we succumb in dead silence? What if……?” He continues.
I sank into a deep thought to get him the replies, but all in vain! To date, the old blind man longs to be a bird, but not caged! A moon without tears! A sun with sunshine! The raindrops without patterings. If…!
The dreams of the old blind man are still to be dreamt! He is dead with his body bagged to the city morgue. God left him all alone! He was born alone! He dreamt alone! He…!
The caged bird wishes to die as the old blind man did. He no longer wants to suffocate in the dark dungeon of the humans.
He wants to talk with God about the freedom which He bestowed him. Oh! Mankind, stand up to free the innocent birds! They long to see the beauty of the universe!
“Munaj wake up. It is too late for the university.”
I sprung out of the bed and witnessed nothing out of the ordinary. There was no bird, no old man, no mosque, no moon, but my mother and the unfinished story…!
