Nature should mean freedom…

Deepa Mohan has a poem to celebrate nature and ponder over the contradictions that we live with!

Do they not look delightful

Perched upon the wire,

Chatting together

Against the sky?

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When I see the same birds

Through the twisted wire

Of bird-cages, penned up…

I ask..why?

birdcage 090215 (Picture of Munias in a bird cage from the FB page of Gopakumar Namboothiri, with his permission)

Why can we not just admire?

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The flower set upon the bush

Or smiling from its tree?

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Why do we need to cage and tie down beings

That look so much better, when they are free?

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The first photo was taken on Bannerghatta Road, near the Police Station; the second in a house nearby, where I persuaded the people to set the birds free (these birds can survive in the wild, not all species can, especially Budgerigars, which have been bred in captivity.)

The third photo is of Erythrina indica or the Coral Flower, taken in Banashankari; I wanted to contrast it with the flowers, like the Hibiscus (taken at Kaikondrahalli Lake) that we pluck from the trees for our use. The caged leopard was clicked in Bannerghatta Zoo.

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