I don’t know where it came from; it seemed to have materialised out of thin air. All I know is that one moment it wasn’t there and then in the next instant there it was, perched in a rather curious and unsure sort of way on the parapet wall of my Penthouse Apartment in Al Khuwair. Muscat. It seemed to have materialised out of nowhere.
I don’t know where it came from; it seemed to have materialised out of thin air. All I know is that one moment it wasn’t there and then in the next instant there it was, perched in a rather curious and unsure sort of way on the parapet wall of my Penthouse Apartment in Al Khuwair, Muscat.
It was close to sundown and twilight colours streaked across a November sky. In the fading light, I thought the poor creature was a crow because of its dark colour. As it got closer, moving towards me with its awkward, shuffling gait it was easy to see that it was a parrot because of its typical beak, its wide, google-eyed look and its shuffling, shifting wobbly gait.
Was that African Grey Parrot trying to tell me something? My Aunt Shalini and I were very close, since we both had a birthday on the same day, May 15. Perhaps I will never know, but I still think about that incident every now and then
Could this be an African Grey Parrot, I thought to myself, as I kept moving towards it, keen to get a closer look in the approaching darkness. It made no attempt at all to retreat or step back. I thought I noticed a strange, baleful look in its eyes; it could’ve been my imagination or the half light, I’m not sure now. I quickly stepped back inside my bedroom and hastily slid the French windows shut. I suppose reading too many books on the supernatural can give one a hyper imagination. But this really did happen.
The bird came forward and pressed its beak against the glass window, as though it wanted to say something. For some reason or the other, I couldn’t make myself open the window, it seemed so strangely eerie and scary too.
Seeing my reluctance to open the window. The African Grey paused for a while, then shuffled away back onto the parapet wall, looked at me for half a minute and then just disappeared. Perhaps dematerialised would be a more appropriate word.
The next day I received news that my Aunt Shalini, my mother’s younger sister, had passed away in Hyderabad, after a prolonged battle with cancer.
Was that African Grey Parrot trying to tell me something? My Aunt Shalini and I were very close, since we both had a birthday on the same day, May 15. Perhaps I will never know, but I still think about that incident every now and then.