clear my suspicion, as I could now spot
the thread, normally used by kids to fly
kites. To my surprise, an army of eagles
had swung into action to save this one.
On one hand, the trapped eagle was
making valiant efforts and expending
all his energy to set itself free. On the
other hand, the rescue force was diving
from different heights, at different
speed, and from different angles, to
help the bird in freeing itself. Few of
them even tried to cut the thread that
caught the eagle. To top it, there was a
cacophony of noise; wherein the eagles
were communicating via screeching
to devise an action plan. Their support
and sympathy was welcome but it only
lead to complicating the matter further.
In the meantime, shock and exhaustion
were overtaking the disheveled eagle.
It almost stopped all the attempts to
escape after an hour or so of energy-
sapping kicking around. From the
ground it appeared as though it was
dead out of exhaustion.
We dispatched our driver, Yuvraj, to
the administrative office and informed
Shri Surinder, GM (Administration,
HP Nagar), about the problem and the
need for pressing the right people. I
followed up this with a telephone call to
the GM himself.
As a result of Shri Surinder’s prompt
intervention, a fire truck and a
competent team with necessary
equipments was discharged to rescue
the bird. Though this may seem like a
petty issue compared to Mumbai’s fire
emergencies, on that very day, I learnt
that the fire department is willing to help
during such issues, when time permits.
My wife and I rushed downstairs to take
a closer look of what was happening.
We noticed that the bird was at a height
of about 16 metres from the ground.
We could only contribute a ladder to
the rescue mission.
A few volunteers brought three long
bamboos to build a tool to reach the
bird and rescue it before its too late. At
the tip of this pole a sharp-edged sickle
was fixed to cut the thread. Though
using this tool possessed a risk, we
had to take a chance. A few volunteers
climbed on to the scaffolding, others
assisted them in different ways from
the ground level. Much to my relief, the
rickety tool was very skillfully used and
the bird was freed successfully after an
agonizing struggle of about four hours.
A close inspection revealed what the
source of the problem was the thread
used to fly kites. The bird’s wing bones
suffered a few superficial cuts and
it also lost a couple of feathers as it
struggled for about four hours. We
were glad it did not secure any serious
damage. The volunteers gave it some
cool water and fed some eatables.
Since the eagle was in a state of shock,
it needed some more time and rest to
gain its confidence back.
While nursing the injured eagle, the fire
truck arrived. Since, the mission was
already taken care of, the crew of the
fire truck made the mandatory inquiries
and returned as a happy bunch.
Recently, a crow was entangled in a
thread and hung similarly off a branch.
It eventually died. Therefore, this time
I had to escalate the issue to higher
levels of management. I am grateful
that the matter was received with
quick response.
On January 04, 2018 we were
observing the tenth day rituals of
my father demise. The hapless eagle
getting caught in the web and our
rescuing it were purely coincidental.
I still feel that these two incidents are
quite unrelated. The outcome of our
efforts in saving the precariously placed
bird were highly satisfying.
I overheard someone from the
crowd say that setting a bird free was
symbolic of liberating the soul of my
late father. Hearing this, emotions
overpowered me and I could barely
control my tears.
Looking back, I realised that, we from
the family, in fact, exactly did the
opposite while trying to rescue my late
father from that deadly disease. We
never wanted to set the ‘Soul’ of the
head of our house-hold, my late father,
free! We in the family were selfish.
Though we knew that my late father
was in great pain and may depart any
time; we tried our best to keep him
alive, as long as possible, for, after all,
losing a parent or losing the head of the
family, is an irreparable or irreversible
loss; whatever is one’s age or whatever
situation the family is in.
In the end, I strongly believe that I was
lucky enough to play a modest role in
mobilizing people to save the eagle.
ISSUE 1 2018
9