Peas in a Pod

I can see the feet of the children of the family running around. I can hear them laughing and calling out to one another. But they can’t see me. Tiny sunbeams come to play hide and seek with me every day in this warm corner of the garden. I am quite comfortable in the soft bed of mud cushioned by dead leaves in the shade of a rose bush. I inhale the sweet fragrance of the roses and wonder what can be better than this. I have begun to feel so sleepy these days. The soft soil around me is getting more comfy as the days pass. As I lie looking at the patch of the blue sky at night covered with stars I often dream of my brothers and sisters. 

Just a few days back I was with my brothers and sisters in a green pod. There were six of us. Oh… how we loved to laugh and tease each other. Inside the pod it wasn’t too dark but it wasn’t too bright either as it is now. We often wondered what the world would be like outside the pod.  Every day we could hear happy voices and laughter around…Children’s voices and then an adult voice, perhaps their mother’s. Then there would be an elderly female voice, maybe their grandmother’s. I remember the day I was formed… the memories are not too clear but I heard excited voices around. I slowly realized I wasn’t alone. I had my brothers and sisters with me. Slowly, very slowly, we began to grow and get rounder. We enjoyed hearing the sound of bees humming outside our pod; the birds would sing and talk to each other. Once I heard a bulbul scolding her young ones who had been very naughty and had broken a lily with their sharp beaks. Each day the woodpecker would come and make a lot of noise pecking at the wood of a tree nearby. The sun warmed our pods daily and we grew stronger. My youngest brother was always full of questions and was curious to know when we would be able to see the beautiful world outside. We knew the world was beautiful… and colourful because we gathered every bit of information listening to the different birds chirping excitedly of the different places they visited and then the bees sang of the pretty flowers they collected honey from. 

One day we heard a little boy ask his grandmother when the peas could be picked and his grandmother laughed and told him to wait for a week more. We were terribly excited and shivered with joy. In seven days we would be free, we would be able to look around us. Time passed very slowly for us after that. We could hardly wait. And, then finally there were shouts of joy and many children gathered around us. We could feel the whole creeper on which we lay shake and then we were lifted in our pod and placed somewhere. There were others too like us I realized. My brothers and sisters, we could hear other voices like ours. We called out to them and they replied to us. I realized we had been ‘picked’. 

Then, as each pod was slit open I could hear the others calling out and laughing joyfully as they finally saw the bright world around them. There was another sound, the musical tinkling of glass bangles. Then, my pod was lifted and as it was slit open we brothers and sisters all called out our goodbyes to each other. I caught sight of rainbow coloured circles on delicate wrists. We fell through the air destined to land in a small, round vessel. But I somehow, lost my balance and rolled on to the wooden table. I was well formed and continued to roll to the edge of the table. Surprisingly no one noticed me. I was alarmed and giddy too with so much of rolling. Suddenly, the table shook and off I went again… down… down… ceaselessly. I landed in a patch of sunlight on the floor. I was out of breath and a bit shaken up. This was the first time I felt the warmth of the sun’s rays on my body directly. It felt wonderful. Gradually I relaxed and now waited to see what would happen. I was enjoying my adventure thoroughly. I saw a strange creature with huge eyes and long pointed ears look at me from under the table… I guessed this must be Mini, the family cat who would go chasing birds in the garden. I had heard the birds talk a lot about her vain and cruel ways. I shivered, thinking why she was looking at me so keenly. Suddenly, she rushed towards me and hit me with one of her white paws… I rolled over and over… then she rushed towards me again, pounced on me and threw me in the air. I was startled. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was really very scared. I rolled into a tiny crack in the floor of the verandah. She tried to pull me out with her sharp claws but she could not reach me. I was terrified of her evil looking nails. She tried a few more times but couldn’t reach me. She finally got tired and disappeared. I breathed a sigh of relief thinking the danger was over. I began to look around me with interest. From where I lay, I could see the sun shining and the red and orange splashes of colour, the luxuriously flowering bougainvillea. There was the bulbul in the branches of this beautiful bougainvillea and her nest too. I could see her naughty children playing around between the blossoms. As I was looking at them with interest I felt someone’s eyes on me, I turned to see the bulbul looking at me with great interest. I was about to say a polite hello when she suddenly hopped closer and lifted me out from the crack. I was very grateful because I was wondering how I would get out from the rut I had gotten stuck in. Whooshhh… she flew with me in her beak. I had a wonderful view of the green leaves of the rose bushes nearby and the numerous rose buds soon to be kissed open by the Sun. I opened my mouth to say ‘thank you’ to the dear little bulbul and then screamed in fright as I saw that she was taking me as food for her young ones. They had opened their beaks greedily and were calling out in hunger to their mother. How many of them…?? I counted three little hungry baby bulbuls. I could almost feel my body being torn into pieces. I thought to myself was this how my life was to come to an end? Was I to become the food of hungry bulbuls? That’s it? That was all? She flew closer and closer and my heart beat faster and faster. I was screaming for help. 

And, just then, the white fur ball Mini with her sharp claws and big teeth decided to make an appearance. Mother Bulbul screeched loudly and dropped me in her haste to reach her babies. I fell through the air once again…and landed among the rose bushes I had seen from a height. It is here that I have come to rest. I love this spot and would like to take root here. What do you think? By the way, I hope you are not friends with the children of this household or with Mini either. See… you mustn’t tell them. I wouldn’t like being discovered and disturbed.