ONE SON AND TWO DAUGHTERS in Jammu

In the shop- first clique!

Sarita

The son of Jammu: Mithu

I came from Vritti’s house to Sarita’s and Reena’s  house with lot of discomfort on my body as the pain was intensely felt due to the long  20 kms walk from the Vaishnov Devi temple to Katra.  While passing the Sony camera shop, Sarita told me that I could buy the Sony camera from Jammu as I wished to buy one from Jammu.  We went to the shop and bought the camera. It was a very good decision.  Very quickly, we reached their house.When I saw several steps to climb to reach their house, I was thinking of 18 steps of Shabrimala to offer my prayers to Ayappa! Both of them helped me to climb those steps. I was too eager to see the wonderfully projected character in their stories, Mithoo, the Alexandrine parrot, a very costly parrot. He was the main character in their stories narrated to me while we were travelling to Rajauri. It was beyond belief that he was above 50 years. Reena wanted me to believe that Mithu was very handsome when he was young. Yes, he is! The male member of the house is definitely young in his looks. To my surprise, Reena told me that her auntie had a younger parrot aged 75.  I believed her because it was her life story.

Sarita described his childhood. Mithoo was born in Amritsar and was taken to a village in Jallandhar. In the house, to protect him from cats, he was hung in a small cage, having no bottom on an open well. Poor Mithoo was terribly afraid of the depth of the well. He got a comfortable house when he was taken to Delhi. That was the daughters’ house. They were living with parents in Delhi but before Mithoos’s arrival their mother passed away. Mithoo substituted the lost mother. He was bargained for Rs 5000 and 100000 by those who loved his beauty but they held him close to their heart. So they did not sell him. In their memory card, they saved several such incidents of Mithoo. As they were also children, they innocently experimented with his moods to help him escape from severity of the winter. One day, accepting the suggestion from their friends, they gave Mithoo half a spoon of whisky. Mithoo enjoyed the taste. although within seconds he dipped into snoring.The children were terribly afraid of their father, as they realized that Mithoo was not getting up under any circumstance. Both of then anxiously started their pooja which lasted for more than 2 hours. Nothing worked. They applied aftershave lotion, perfume, talc etc. on his beak and neighboring parts to escape from telling the truth to their dad. They were lucky as he woke up before their dad’s arrival. Mithoo compromised with Sarita once she readily received enough pecking from him. At another time, she gave injection to Mithoo for 3 weeks as per the instruction of veterinarian  for treating malaria. Mithoo never understood why his favorite friend pained him and even now he refuses to reconcile with her in certain things. He walks like a human being, he eats from Reena’s plate, he sleeps on her neck. I felt he also took the lost Dad’s role. Amazing relationship!

 I had dangerous experiment with Mithu. But I could win over his confidence. When I sang he danced, when I opened the big cage in their house, he did not respond negatively. Mithoo quickly went behind his pot to hide himself. But after sometime, he slowly sneaked down and sat a foot away from my feet. He understood that I was not a threat to him. I could see the sense of warmth spreading on his heart. The rest you see on the photographs..... 

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