Ten days back when my Ma was getting discharged from the hospital, the nurse was emptying the drawers in the table next to her bed, putting all the medicines she would need over the next few days in a bag and disposing off unnecessary stuff, empty bottles etc. There was this brand new lone syringe and needle which I instinctively reached out for and said I’ll take that. I couldn’t think of why I would need an injection, but what the hell, I do a lot of things I should not do, knowing the consequences. Like I know what will happen if I eat that one more besan laddoo and still do. So what’s the big deal about not knowing what will happen if you did something and still doing it!

Anyways, I kept that syringe in the back pocket of my sling bag, where it stayed for a few days, till I was finally back home and unpacked all my stuff. I found the syringe too, looking at it again still not knowing what I’ll do with it, I put it away in the cup holding my paint brushes. Maybe I’ll use it for some new painting technique I mused!

Couple of days later my Swami friend and I went visiting a dear friend’s place in a land not so far far away, but not close either. As I sat at her place attempting to pet one of her three cats, I was even more grateful for having had Princess for 13 beautiful years. Princess was this beautiful Yorkshire terrier who had filled our lives with so much joy and love that I still tear up everytime I talk about her since we lost her in December. As we sat chatting, my friend stepped out to investigate some commotion outside her place. Turns out a sparrow lay dead on the road, with another little sparrow hopping around its now dead mother. Maybe the mother was trying to retrieve her baby that had fallen off the nest and got run over in the process. Point is the little one needed to be rescued.

My friend gently held the agitated little one in her palm attempting to soothe it. She mixed a few drops of Rescue Remedy of Bach Flower Remedy in water and administered it to the feisty little one with some cotton.(I had never heard of Bach flower remedy before, but am glad I did.)

All this was done in the staircase of the house since the home had three cats and birds aren’t exactly safe in that vicinity. The next thing I know, we had decided I should take her home and we were on our way back with Swamiji holding a shoebox which had holes punctured on the walls to keep it well aired. Inside lay the little sparrow, nesting comfortably in the fabric Chandy had lined the box with. Once home, we made a comfortable place for her next to my bed by turning a sofa into a crib. Now started the agenda of feeding her!

Chandy had given me instructions on how to feed her with a tweezer. Not knowing any better, I took out some boiled rice and tried to administer a single grain of rice by gently touching it against her beak. Though she was no longer as agitated, she was completely unresponsive and buried her face into her body, indicating she wanted to be left alone. My younger born used to turn his face away from food in a similar manner, and I knew better than to coax too much. He is ofcourse now a young man, who was helping me with her, or helping her with me, can’t say for sure! Anyways, the next few hours were spent trying to feed her things we thought she could eat. She stubbornly refused and we finally accepted that she’d rather sleep than be prodded to eat.

I spent that night checking on her almost every hour. At the crack of dawn, which is a time most unfamiliar to my waking self, and if at all I have encountered it, it is mostly due to having stayed up, rarely due to waking up then, I tried again to feed her. There was once again no success. It was time to use the most important shastra, the Googleshastra. The 1st YouTube video that surfaced showed a little birdie being fed a home mixed formula with a syringe.

I went into the kitchen and prepared her meal, picked up the syringe from among my paint brushes and effectively fed her her 1st meal since the trauma. After I put her back to rest in her crib and washed the syringe as any Mom who has bottlefed a baby would know, I went back to sleep.

That is when it hit me. Her bottle had arrived, before the baby did. The synchronicity of life had taken me to visit a friend 30 kms away along with another friend, so this baby could get a comfortable ride back home. As I was telling my Swamini friend about the incident, she said to me – God knows how to care for each and everyone!

And I got thinking again…why do we ever worry? I was reminded of the song that I loved to sing as a child..Que Sera Sera, what ever will be will be!

In amazement

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