The Feeble Duckling

Toyi stays in a ground-floor apartment across a blue pond. Sitting on the windowsill in her room she can view the activities of the ducks that dwell in the pond. Her school is closed for summer holidays. There is not much homework to be done. Toyi gets bored with the cartoons of Shin-Chan, Doraemon and Robot Boy. After a certain time of watching them she loses interest in their funny mischief. It's better to look at the ducks swimming and playing in the pond. Toyi loves to look at their brown, grey, green and red and plumage that never get wet. There are other visitors like the whooping cranes and kingfishers who perch on nearby trees to catch fish leaping out of water.

One morning when Toyi is brushing her teeth in the garden, she hears an awful cry. That's not the usual quack of ducks she hears everyday. It must be an alarming sound which Toyi has to inspect. She heads to the fence surrounding the pond. There is a marigold bush that leans over the bamboo sticks. She pushes aside the tender branches to find the source of that cry. A feeble yellow duckling is lying with her fluffed and ruffled feathers. It is crying in pain and must be asking for help. Toyi calls out her mother, "Mummy, there is a little yellow duck in danger. Please come." Her mother who is drying out clothes in the balcony rushes to the spot. She gazes at the duckling and says, "She is weak and needs food and care." They decide to carry the little bird to their house for treatment. Mother brings a small green towel and wraps the duckling with that. At home the bird is kept in a shoebox which was earlier used as a doll's house.

Toyi finds herself in the new role of a nurse to the duckling who is given a new name Dali. The little nurse feeds Dali milk and breadcrumbs whenever she gets an instruction from her mother. The shoebox is placed below her bed. When Toyi reads books or plays a game on her mother's phone, she lets the duckling hopping on her desk. She refuses to sleep in the afternoon, but wants to spend more of her time with the bird. Mother tells her in delight, "Toyi, the duckling has become your new friend." Toyi replies, "Don't call her a duckling. She is my dear Dali." Within a few weeks the feeble bird recovers from illness. She gains strength and walks steadily on the floor. Even she follows Toyi wherever she goes. Toyi loves to watch her hopping and quacking and fluffing wings.

Mother understands that it's time for the duckling to go back to the pond. She declares, "Tomorrow we will take Dali to her mother. She must be missing her daughter." Toyi protests, "No Mummy, we have brought her to our house. She's our pet. Why should we leave her?" Her mother smiles and answers, "Can you stay alone without your Mummy and Baba? The poor little bird can't survive without her mother. I'm sure that you don't want her to cry for her mother. Right?" Almost half-willingly Toyi agrees to her mother's proposal. Next morning they lead the duckling to the spot where she was found. The mother duck is swimming with her other children away from the fence. Seeing her little daughter she quickly swims to the shore near the marigold bush. Little Dali utters, "Quack.... quack!" Toyi assumes that means "Mumma, I've come back home!" The mother duck pats her daughter's feathers with her beak. She helps Dali to get into the water to join her brothers and sisters. Dali never look back to Toyi as she starts floating.

Back home Toyi feels lonely and depressed. Nothing can please her. Mother offers her a bowl of her favourite noodles. But she doesn't feel an urge to eat. Without Dali her world seems dull and boring. The last few weeks were busy with her nursing practice -- feeding the duckling, cleaning her and helping her to roam around. Mother chuckles and tells her, "This isn't fair, my girl. Don't you want your Dali to join her family and be happy?" An irritated Toyi answers, "No, how did she forget me completely seeing her family? That's so mean and ungrateful!" When Baba comes back from office Toyi makes a request to him. She wants to hear the story of the forest-girl Shakuntala who could speak to birds and animals. A story may heal her pain.

The next morning at 6.30 when Toyi is still in bed, she hears a strange knock at her door that opens towards the pond. "Tuck... tuck... tuck!" What's making that weird sound? Toyi comes down from the bed and opens that door. She looks down at the stairs. To her wonder she finds the entire duck family -- the mother duck and her five children including Dali standing at the door step. They have come to meet her. By that time mother appears in the room with a glass of milk and toast omlette for Toyi. She notices a bewildered look on Toyi's face and looks at the floor. The mother duck followed by her children are making a procession in the room. She speaks out, "Toyi, they have come to thank you for what what you've done for Dali." The mother duck crosses the door leading to the dining room. Toyi follows them and whispers to her mother, "They want to see how our house looks. They're our guests. Won't you give them something to eat?" Mother grins cheerfully, "Yes, of course. Let me get some bread pieces and sweet pies for our guests." The duck family fearlessly wanders through the house. Dali who knows every corner of it is their guide. Finally they come back to the bedroom that belongs to Toyi. All five birds stop there and sit in a circle. In the meantime, mother gets their breakfast ready in a plate on the floor. All five of them poke their beaks into the plate and finish the torn breads and pies. Toyi keeps on clapping around them. When this episode of breakfast is done, the birds make a move to the door. It's time to go back to the pond. The mother duck leads the line of her children. Toyi remembers the line of her assembly in the school. All five walk at same pace to the pond. Toyi along with her parents join them till the marigold bush. They wave at the birds once they move into the water and push out their feet back to swim. Toyi isn't sad. She knows that her dear Dali is happy with her mother like she's with her parents. She looks up at her father and says, "Baba, I can understand their language like Shakuntala. Dali and her mother told me thank you. Did you understand that?"

This story is dedicated to my little fairy Protyayee Sarkar who lives in Florida.

Suvadip Bhattacharjee

22 June 2020

Toyi is feeding her duck family
Picture courtesy: Protyayee Sarkar