Jain Spirit 1999 10 No 02

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 39

YOUTH
occasionally triumphed over nurture, and when the dawn light peeped into the bird's cage it sometimes fluttered its wings in a reprehensible manner. And, though this is hard to believe, occasionally it pecked pitifully at its bars with its feeble beak.
"What impertinence!" growled the head guard.
The blacksmith, with his forge and hammer, took his place in the Raja's Department of Education. Oh, how his blows resounded! Soon an iron chain was complete, and the bird's wings were clipped.
The Raja's brothers-in-law looked grim, and shook their heads, saying, 'These birds not only lack good sense, but also gratitude!"
With textbook in one hand and baton in the other, the pundits gave the poor bird what may fittingly be called lessons.
The head guard was honoured with a title for his vigilance, and the blacksmith for his skill in forging chains.
The bird died.
No one had the least notion exactly when this had occurred. The fault-finder was the first person to speak the rumour.
The Raja called his nephews and asked them, "My dear nephews, what is this that we hear?"
The nephews said "Sire, the education of the bird is complete."
"Does it hop?" the Raja enquired.
"Never!" said the nephews.
"Does it fly?"
"No."
"Bring me the bird," said the Raja.
The bird was brought, escorted by the head guard, sepoys on foot and sowars on horseback. The Raja poked the bird's body with his finger. Its inner stuffing of book leaves rustled.
coal
Ouside the window, a spring breeze murmured among newly budded ashoka leaves, and made the April morning wistful.
Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. This essay was extracted from Rabindranath Tagore - An Anthology', Edited by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, £20, Picador, London, 1997.
38 Jain Spirit October December 1999
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"Sire, the education of the bird is complete"
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