Cuckoo
She was lying wide awake in her hostel bed. It was just yesterday when she had traveled 1600 kilometers away from home alone to give wings to her dreams. Her cozy nest of 21 years was now beyond access and mother bird was nowhere around to take care of her. There was no steaming breakfast on the table, no hot water running, no ironed clothes and no mom shouting “Oh! Come on kid, get up already. You are late.” Sometimes I used to deliberately pretend to be asleep just to hear her voice. But then she remembered Moms warm tight hug and her precious words which were still echoing in my ears. “Go my dear Cuckoo (that’s my nickname) grab the world by horns. Mumma is so proud of you. In you I live my dreams”. She got up from the bed and opened the balcony door. Mumma Duck was swimming happily with her ducklings in the nearby pond. That was the day little cuckoo bird grew up and took her first flight to make the world her own.