GREEN PARROTS IN A CAGE

              -Gopi Gauba

Gopi Gauba was a journalist and short story writer. The partition of India in 1947 and its traumatic impact on people who were forced to migrate, forms the background of her story Green Parrots in a cage. The story has won a BBC prize.

A parrot seller stood near the gate of the narrator. He had two parrots in a cage. He asked the narrator to buy his parrots. He also told her that he wanted money to get a ticket to go home. He was from Kutch. Like the parrot seller, many people needed money to leave the town. There were violent riots every- where in Hyderabad Sind because of the partition. Most of the Hindus, including the narrator had to leave for India.

The narrator did not want the parrots. But for the sake of her three year old son she got them. Moreover, she wanted to help the man. They brought the parrots inside their house. They fed them with green chilli and guava. The birds nipped the mother (narrator) in anger. So they decided to leave the bids in their orchard.

Their orchard was situated near the river PhuleliRarnai was the gardener. His special hobby was to look after the birds in the orchard. The narrator asked their coachman, Din Mohammed to take them to the orchard. He refused as it was too far away from the town. He also told them that it was not safe, He told them to give the parrots to the Maulana. But they did not want to leave the parrots to him.

 Then, the narrator arranged the second coachman, Khana Sahib. They went to the orchard. It's gates were open. They called for Ramai. But there was utter silence everywhere. They left the cage opened on the lawn. They thought that the parrots would fly away happily. But the parrots did not fly immediately. After a long time, with much hesitation, one by one they flew away.

 The narrator compared herself and her state to the state of the parrots, Like the parrots, the narrator and her family have to leave their home for a supposed home they do not know. That worried and upset her.

Suddenly, she got an instinct to run away from the place. The Orchard, was once a place of enjoyment and thing of beauty. But now it had become eerie and frightening.

The story has two strands, one the story of the parrots and the other, the anguish of the people who were forced to leave their homes. Thus, by presenting the two strands, she gives a wonderful description of the partition and its effects.