How he had fallen into this predicament still remained a mystery to him. He was simply flying in a downward motion with the smoothness always evident of crows ready to pick up a large piece of roti. That would have fed the nest for a good three days. And he could have used that time for collecting some foliage for the impending winter. But here he was hopping. And helping no one. There were three possibilities as to how he could have ended up thus. It could have been the big silver pole hidden behind the tree where his friend Kaalia lived. Or it could have been the tight wire that ran between this and another pole like it a few metres away. But the most likely possibility was that he had been brought down by an unseen force. Something he had never imagined existed. Samba’s imagination wasn’t the best, but he had seen the world. He had been around the entire suburb… no mean achievement in his world.

He now wondered what would happen of his little ones. They were still in that precarious stage where they needed supervision, care and constant feeding. And that’s exactly why the large piece of roti had seemed so inviting. He was sure that one of his other friends from the neighbouring trees would take care of his three young ones, but he also feared for their safety given that Gallu the eagle had been hovering around quite a bit lately.

‘No point pondering over these things,’ thought Samba. ‘I need to get out of here. But how? I can’t seem to move my wings. Neither can I get on to that little wall. If I could just get up there,’ he though, ‘I could perhaps jump off there and get some wind in my wings to get into the air again.’ Samba hadn’t entirely lost sight of his original goal either. Only now, he wasn’t sure where the roti was.

When he was diving down, it sat in a perfect position for him to just swoop in and fly out. All in one smooth motion. He had worked it all out in his mind. But what was that obstruction which felled him so? He often wondered about the humans and their constant need for making things. He never understood why humans trusted their metallic animals so much. Horses were better, he thought. They were fast, quiet when they ran and could eat anytime they were free. But humans preferred to sit in these odd metallic animals.

Samba recalled his reaction the first time he had seen this sight. He was barely out of his mother’s nest and being close to a road, he had a clear view of the goings-on of that street. He had been educated about humans and how to best use them by his mother, but when he saw one of them disappear into the belly of this animal, he couldn’t help but shriek. Amused, his mother told him they were going to get out of it eventually, but not here. The animal takes them elsewhere and drops them out of the belly. ‘Why,’ asked Samba.

‘It is the animals food. He feasts on their energy and that energy takes it ahead. When it’s full, it drops it off,’ said his mother.

‘What animal is this?’

‘I don’t know what it’s called, but you should stay away from it. I have seen it attack some other birds from and it wasn’t good for birds,” she warned him.

As he mulled this information over, Samba thought it couldn’t be so bad if humans did eventually get out of it. Maybe he would see what was inside the animal for himself one day.

A splash of water broke Samba from his reverie. And he decided he couldn’t waste any more time thinking about the past. ‘This is no time to reminisce,” he scolded himself. But how was he to get out of this pickle? None of the humans walking on the road seemed to want anything to do with him. ‘Will they let me die here,’ he wondered…

Two questions continued to haunt Samba, though. How will he fly again and get to his children. And how did he ever fall down? While the answer to the first question continued to elude him, Samba thought about how he had fallen down. He remembered that there was a period soon after he fell of which he could recall nothing. Did he fall asleep? How is that possible? He was flying and going for food… he couldn’t have fallen asleep and hit the ground. But that’s where he was… so how did he get there?

It had now been more than an hour and a half that Samba had been struggling for movement. He was contemplating ways of getting back home hopping. But he couldn’t recall where home was. All his landmarks were in the air. And from the ground, it all looked like one mess of smoke, metal and feet. And there was no way he would even make it across the street if that’s where he had to go to get home. Samba made a mental note to teach his children to have landmarks on the ground as well in addition to the ones in the air. He had never spend so much time on the road and was amused how different the trees looked from the ground. From the air, he could easily tell which tree was whose home and where his home was. He couldn’t even find the big grey building that was built by humans right behind his home.

In his frantic search, Samba did not notice the two girls who were now eyeing him with a mix of curiosity and pity. He had seen that look before. The last time someone had given him that look, he had brought home a big piece of sweet bread. What a feast it had been. He had even shared some with the cranky Targan in the next tree. While he wouldn’t mind a piece of bread right now, he really wondered how he would get it home. But then he looked closely and the humans had no food with them. They just had two pieces of cloth slung over their shoulders and some paper in one hand.

The smaller of the two then took something out of the cloth and proceeded to talk into it. And before he knew it, the other one with the paper in hand had scooped him up off the ground. Samba’s initial reaction was to try and get away. He couldn’t afford to have human smell on him. That would be the end of him and his children. But was this his last hope? Would they take to his home? No, they couldn’t. They didn’t know where he lived. He tried to make sense of what was happening and forced himself to think straight. What was happening, he shouted. But they couldn’t understand him. Humans had no knowledge of the complex communication that took place among birds. Each pitch, each note and each length of note had a significance. What would they understand?

But to his shock, they seemed to understand. They smiled. And then, almost diabolically, the one who had scooped him up started walking towards one of the metal animals. Excitement and fear. Together. Samba was almost dizzy and not having eaten or drunk anything didn’t help. This was it, he thought. Already low on energy, the animal would suck out whatever little was left and these humans would then eat him. Crow, he had been told was considered a delicacy among humans. They often tried to hunt them, albeit primitively, for food. The stones they threw at crows, the clothes they tried to cover crows in were all covert attempts at capturing them for the meat. And today, he would be someone’s dinner.

The metal animal approached them. Or did they approach it? He wasn’t sure anymore. Then he noticed the animal turn around and look the opposite direction. Its eyes weren’t lit right now, but he knew that once the animal had consumed his energy, it would light up. As the trio walked towards the animal, Samba let his thoughts drift one last time to his children. How he wished he could have brought them the roti. It was their favourite too…

As they entered the animal, Samba felt energetic almost immediately. Perhaps the metal animal was not familiar with crows and couldn’t sap them of their energy. Perhaps crows were an antidote and he could sap the energy out. But he soon noticed that there was another man holding a round object that made the animal go as he wanted to. No one had told the crows but the humans seemed to have tamed the metal animal as well. But why was he suddenly cold now? The two girls offered him water and he gratefully drank, but all the while, he was alert to any possibility of escaping he could grab.

Being inside the animal seemed to make the humans feel better, he realized. They had been sweating till now but now, they were relaxed. And there was some music playing somewhere, too. What animal was this that entertained its prey? Samba was close to panic now. Although he felt rejuvenated, he didn’t want to push his luck. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice one of the girls pull out a piece of sticky stretchable material from under his wings.

‘Damn these kids,’ she said. ‘Why do they throw chewing gum so callously?’

Samba was learning a lot today. If only he could return to his nest, he could pass the information around. Even become a hero. But he had to concentrate. He was sure the girl was referring to the pink sticky string she had pulled out as “chewing gum”. He never noticed it there, but was sure it didn’t belong to him. It wasn’t something he had hidden there. And now, as she pulled out more of it, his wings started to feel lighter. Maybe he could still escape, get the roti and make it home before dark.

While the mystery of how the “chewing gum” got under his wings baffled him, Samba continued to look for escape routes. He could see six possibilities… one wide in the front and back and four small ones – two on either side. And just then, the girl seemed to make his wing better. He could now flap it. And so he thought he would leave. And flew. His happiness was only momentary, though. He was sure he had chosen the right direction to escape. But why, once again, was he hearing a thud? And why was he still in the metal animal?

His flapping had also worked to put the humans on the defensive. They now cowered behind their cloth and their paper. And one of them pressed a button. He could feel the warm air rush towards him. Was this the fatal moment? Before he could react, though, one of them pushed him forth and he was out… into the free sky. As himself. And it was then that he realized. There was no escape there. It was all a ruse. There was an invisible wall. A wall that showed much, but gave little. Like the wall beyond which the roti lay. It promised much for his family, but he could never have it. He vowed to be more aware of these walls and not go after the lures they held beyond. As he flew away, he once again saw the roti but now, he knew there was a wall there.

‘Humans,’ he thought. ‘Putting up barriers that no one can see or go through. And they wonder why there is so much unhappiness in their world.’