It was while looking through the window glass I saw the crow. He was looking directly at me, and I knew he wanted his feed. I opened the window to put his food on an upturned pot which served as his table, but he grew frightened with the swoosh of the window opening and flew away, not just to a tree or branch, but right across the old quarry that was behind my home, all across to what I knew were some buildings on the other side.

I didn’t wait to see him get there, but raced downstairs with a plan. I wondered how long it would take me to reach the same spot as the crow had flown to.

I had to search for my driver, he wasn’t next to the car, but after a hurried and urgent call, he appeared, “Fast,” I yelled, and directed him out of the gate and down a side road, then taking a U turn, coming back and turning a left into a gully. He had to slow down as people were everywhere blocking the street.

 “Where to sir?” He asked, confused with my haste and inability to describe too well the destination I wanted to reach.

I told him where, and he slowed down, as dozens of young men and boys were flying kites in the field, down in the old quarry from where I could see the back of my home.

I looked up to where the crow should have been sitting, but didn’t find him there. I looked at my own window, but he wasn’t there too, and then I looked down.

I realized there was a wounded bird, who had hit one of the kite threads and maybe hurt his wing and fallen.

He was hobbling to safety.

The crow had not reached his destination, but I, though much slower had!

As I turned back to my car, I thought of all those who tried to achieve results, by using speed and muscle, and marched ahead as the crow flies, straight and forward without thinking.

Of Myanmar, with Dictator Generals who had got fed up with the slowness of democracy and had coined a new phrase, “Disciplined Democracy!”

I wondered whether like my poor crow, they would soon hit a roadblock, maybe that of citizens they were not taking along. Wouldn’t it have been wiser allowing the elected government take its own long circuitous route, which though tedious, would finally have got there?

I thought of other leaders, closer home, who like the crow flying, bulldozed laws without debate and discussion, thinking like the crow they knew the best and fastest route.

I looked back and watched the poor fellow still hobbling away trying to avoid the callous, cruel, couldn’t care less feet of the youngsters in the field, and felt sorry for him..!

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