The Guardian Angel
We are a seed from the womb of a fruitful tree that nurtures us. After birth, the first person we feel or see is our mothers and not everyone is fortunate to experience this magnificent blessing that God has created and showered upon us. One such unfortunate seed is Yazhini, covered with flaky layers of hard wooden shells, she looked like a miniature pineapple. She was plucked away from the branch by a bird even before she was prepared to germinate. She was deprived the blessing of witnessing her mother. Her eye-catching appearance could be the reason many birds picked her up and dropped her in various places. After losing grip of her in its beak, the bird had dropped her into the river. She laid wedged between river pebbles and was trying her best every day to make her way out. She would feel the warmth of the sun's rays and the chilling stream, fishes would also come and nibble her flaky shell. One fine day she was picked up by a little egret who flew into the river to fetch some food to feed her hatchlings. Yazhini was overwhelmed, the freedom she experienced was immeasurable, she felt the gust of wind and cherished it. With Yazhini in her beak she flew into the forest and placed her in the nest with her hatchlings. She considered the little egret as her mother, since she unchained her from the cluster of pebbles in the river. She called her Janani. Yazhini ended up jiggling around all over the nest as the hatchlings were jumping for joy. In the midst of their fluttering wings, she fell off the branches and landed on the wet ground. With teary eyes she looked up to Janani expecting her to come down and pick her up, but she lay down disappointed. She ended up being alone again.As days passed, her tiny roots pushed night and day while the soil snuggled her night and gave her way. She sprouted stems and leaves while the sun’s rays kissed her and rain drops showered on her each day. As days and months passed, Yazhini survived several landslides and storms. She grew tall and strong by extending her branches to shelter homeless birds. There was no end to the number of birds that sat on her branches and told her stories of what had happened around the world and how their homes had been destroyed. The Okinawa Rail narrated in grief how the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings destroyed the majority of his family. He explained how he witnessed those missiles that fell off a plane and landed on the ground. After a huge cloud of smoke engulfed the entire place, he fell unconscious. When he woke up he could not find anyone from his family, in fact none of the birds survived this tragedy. Tears rolled down the eyes of the spoon-billed sandpipers as they recollected the destruction of their species during the world war. A family of grizzled giant squirrels who were listening to these stories, came over and expressed their grief too. They were from Sri Lanka and were victims of the war that resulted in the death of their family. Her sole question to them was, "Who is causing these disasters and calamities?" She became infuriated when she heard that humans are to blame.
As years passed by Yazhini noticed that the trees around her were vanishing, the sound of rustling leaves , movement of animals in the forest and chirping birds were reducing. She called out to an eagle flying high in the sky, since he had travelled across the globe. As the eagle flew down and sat on a branch, Yazhini inquired about the missing birds and trees. He explained about the fading nature and the damage to all the species and how he saw the birds die by the unintentional act of humans. To name a few he said, building glass, communication towers, electrocutions, vehicles, turbines, solar panels, poisoning by pesticides and many more. He then said that he was the lone survivor of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. His family, friends and everyone lost their lives in the accident and not a single bird survived. He then went ahead and spoke about deforestation and how trees are being felled by humans. The air pollution levels have increased, leading to acid rains and forest fires. Having heard his mother tell stories about how nature was formed, he has always been very intrigued by the way in which it has supported all living creatures. In tears, he whimpered and said that he was looking forward to seeing his mother and nature once he broke out of the shell. He could feel his mother's warmth on the shell, but this warmth did not seem like the regular ones when his mother cuddled her eggs, the warmth felt like a heatwave. It was time for him to hatch, and he broke out of the eggshell. He saw his mother lay dead burnt by the blazing forest fire, his siblings lay dead in the nest. He was rescued by his uncle who took him to a hilltop and raised him. His uncle blamed humans for the forest fire, a gas pipeline had exploded and the fire spread across the forest. Upon hearing this, Yazhini was furious toward humans and began hating them even though she had never seen one.
One day Yazhini heard a crying sound far away and this sound came from a voice she hadn't heard before. As she kept looking around for this sound, many bullets fired from a shotgun landed on her trunk. Animals were running haywire, birds flew in panic, pieces of bark scattered and the crying sound came to a halt. A little girl, Giselle ran swiftly and hid behind Yazhini. She could feel Giselle’s pounding heartbeat and sensed that she was in danger and needed help. Yazhini stretched out her branches, grabbed Giselle by her waist , lifted and placed her in a hollow shelter within her trunk and covered her with leaves. She was being chased by four men and their dog who unfortunately did not survive the grizzly bear's attack. They searched the perimeter for a while and left the place. On seeing them leave, Giselle thanked Yazhini for saving her life. She made her way out by climbing down the trunk. As she landed and set foot on the ground, there was a fifth man who hid in the bushes, he pulled the trigger and shot her. As Giselle laid dead, Yazhini was enraged and she swung her branches and killed the men who were around her. She sought help from the animals in the forest, they hunted and killed the men who tried to escape. Yazhini saw the soul of Giselle, leave her body, placed her head at the foot of the trunk and thanked her once again. It was all in vain for Yazhini. She mourned and lamented Giselle's loss. Giselle began to tell her story of how she was tortured by her father who was a drunkard. He would physically and sexually abuse her almost every day. Sometimes his friends and neighbours would come home and misbehave with her. She was chained to a wall in the basement for several years and had no opportunity to break free. These men would bring girls from the neighbourhood and assault them in front of her. As years of abuse passed, a drunk man unchained her by mistake, she utilised this opportunity and escaped into the woods. Her freedom came to an end when she was shot dead by her own father. Tears rolled down Yazhini's eyes and a bird' wiped her tears with her soft feathered wings. It was none other than Janani, the little egret who she considered a mother. Yazhini was overwhelmed to see her mother back, but Janani could not remember who Yazhini was. As she reminded Janani who she was and even shared all the stories she had heard over the years, Janani hugged Yazhini in joy.
Giselle wanted to help those girls who were abused by these debauchers, Yazhini and Janani decided to offer their support. So Giselle set herself out in search of all these men and lured them into the forest. Janani would seek the help of the animals around and trap these men so that they could not leave the perimeter. Yazhini would build a divine aura around the men and take them to a state of self-realization. Giselle explained to them the pain and struggles a woman undergoes in her life. Man desires for a woman's flesh but a woman desires for a man's heart. A man is respected only when he knows how to treat and respect a woman. Before a man wishes to see a woman's body with lustful eyes, he should remember that he drank his first drop of milk by feeding on his mother's breast. Do not forget that the body part you crave for, was also your birthplace. Respect a woman, so that your woman would be treated in the same manner.
Yazhini who once was enraged with the brutality of humans and even killed a few, now understands the behavioral pattern of human beings. She would seek Giselle’s and Janani’s help to spread the message to every tree on the earth. These chosen trees enlighten the minds of the human beings who came to them in search of nirvana. They teach every human being on how to preserve nature in every form and not harm them. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was an eminent personality who imbibed such principles within his life and he spread the word by his dream of planting “Billion trees for a billion people. Indian comedian actor Vivek followed Dr. Kalam’s dream and has planted over 33 lakh saplings across Tamil Nadu.
Janani spreads the word across the globe to help preserve the extinction of birds. Dr Salim Ali, also known as 'The Birdman of India' was a well-known ornithologist who battled against the telecom industry in India and had a great love for birds. Our generation has destroyed several trees that were homes to these birds. We have seen thousands of birds fall dead from the sky, birds ramming into glass buildings, it is in our hands to put an end to this and let the birds survive. Earlier, several birds would migrate and travel across the globe without GPS, but now they lose their direction due to high frequencies from electronic devices like our cellular phones.
“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, it means that we have lost connection to ourselves.” - Andy Goldsworthy
A special note of thanks to my dear friend Mr. Sagar Srihari for designing this amazing poster and giving life to Yazhini.
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