Birds Selling---womens kerala

Everything started with a phone call from a friend. That morning I was not exactly planning to chase a bunch of trapped birds through the highway in an auto. But, that is exactly what I ended up doing. “Birds being sold. Has to be stopped. Need assistance. Come immediately.” was the frantic message I got. Within no time,  I was speeding in an auto to Chakkai Junction. Once again the distraught voice of my friend rushed me. "Where are you? They are getting away.  I told you to take the road to Kovalam and not to Sanghumugham. How could you not hear?" By now, I felt like a hapless cop who had lost the case even before he could begin the investigation. I reached my friend fuming at the roadside, her fingers pointed firmly towards the lane ahead. “They took the basket and disappeared into the lane. You can find them if you go fast”. The auto driver and I, doing a Watson and Holmes went into the lane only to be confronted by ten other smaller lanes crisscrossing it. It was ‘elementary’ indeed to understand that we had lost them. “Shall we go this way or that?” asked the driver. “Ways do not matter, we need to reach the end.” I almost spouted philosophy. After moving in all four directions, like partners in a search, I found them and screamed, “There she is..stoppppp !!”. I saw this timid woman, in a saree, peeping out onto the road and another woman behind her. “Hey, are they on the younger side?” I called my friend. “Not very young not very old but yeah wearing a saree.” I hopped out of the auto a few metres away from them. If they sensed my presence and motive, they would make a run for it, and I did not relish the thought of chasing them again through the maze of streets. I crossed the road, careful not to look at them and ended up looking fishy myself. I walked into a bank right ahead of me so that I could observe them from its windows. Only if those in the bank knew that I was actually on a case. The very thought gave me goosebumps. But they vanished the moment I saw the women jump into an auto. “Darn..! Now I’ll really loose them if I don’t hurry.” I sped down the stairs onto the road only to see their auto turning into the highway. I almost jumped in front of another auto in my hurry to chase them. “Go behind that auto. Fastttt!” I yelled. And fortunately, he did not make a fuss. “Where did it go?” he asked. I asked the same. They took neither  left nor right; so… “Shoot straight..!” Their auto had disappeared. Did it just evaporate into thin air? Then the lorry in front moved and I saw the auto in front of it! Mr. Bond can have his Aston Martin DB5. My auto served me just as good.  Meanwhile I managed to tell the DFO who we had already alerted, “Sir, please don’t send your people to Chakkai. I am after them so send them only after my call.” .

As we overtook the ‘fleeing’ auto, I screamed to its driver to stop. Bewildered he stopped. And then I saw their faces. They knew instantly why I had stopped them; that I was after those little birds that they were trying to sell unlawfully. They were rural, Tamil women trying to eke a living out of it. Reading the misery on their faces,  I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. But the chirping of the birds from inside the flat basket made me stand my ground, barring their way  out of the auto. “It’s ok. We will stand outside,” they said. A big ‘no’ was my answer. They are smart, that  I knew. And running through a traffic packed highway was not my cup of tea. “Be at home inside,” I told them. Now I contacted  the DFO again, “Sir, please send your people. We are at the highway.” One of the birds was taken out and I saw how pretty it was. Small and sweet. People buy them to lock them up as ‘love birds;’ as if the birds would bring the much needed love they are searching for! I spent the time talking to the women with the little Tamil that I could muster. The two women were strong yet vulnerable. For them to be away from home and roaming the streets, with these birds, is definitely not as easy as the ‘freedom walk’ recently done in their name. But selling these birds was a crime and so the seller and the sold had to be taken into custody. So I decided to take them over to the DFO’s office myself. “Koncham thalli iri, ma,” I said moving into the auto  with them. Now six hands supported the basket as we sped off to the Forest Office in Vazhuthacaud under the gaze of curious onlookers and with the women on the verge of tears. The DFO was most impressed and assured me that, the women would be detained for a while, strictly warned and sent back. The birds would be set free and  both  parties could go back to where they belong. As I stepped out of the Forest Office, I knew that I hardly deserved a pat on my back. There still were hundreds of those birds trapped and sold out there. And many more of those unfortunate women forced to do things they would rather not. Putting an end to both would not be easy. But one is always free to act, even if in the smallest way possible. And it is always better to have your conscience as your charioteer.