The Great Cloud Bird had once again called the birds of the world together. The birds came, chittering and chattering, honking and hooting, looking forward with great excitement to the event. There would be music and dancing, and good food and stories to be shared.
“We love these gatherings,” twittered a pair of sunbirds. “There are always new birds to meet and new stories to hear.”
“And the music! The nightingales were a fabulous opening act last year,” said a large, green parrot. “I wonder who it is this year.”
“Me, I am opening this year,” said the doel. She cleared her throat nervously, looking around for the coppersmith who had promised to keep the beat to her singing.
As the first tuk-tuk-tuk of the coppersmith filled the air, the pure, sweet notes of the doel rose to the skies. All the birds fell silent and listened, enrapt, as she sang of sunlight on water and wind in the trees. As the last fluid notes of her song died away, the birds broke out in a storm of applause. Garud waited for the birds to quieten, then stepped forward, his wings shining brighter than ever before. “That brought back so many wonderful memories,” he declared, wiping a tear from his eye. “I now turn to the main business of this gathering and invite the story birds to speak.”
The sparrows, who had come from all over the world, whirred up into the air in a great flock, and settled into the centre of the gathering. One of the sparrows settled her elegant feathers and stepped forward. “Dear friends,” she said, “we have been collecting stories for almost three years now. You have helped us in so many different ways—by telling us stories, pointing us to sources, spreading the word, and most of all, by listening to our tales. Today we need your help in another way. We now have so many stories that we can no longer keep them in our heads. We are concerned they will be lost or forgotten. How do we save them and the new stories we collect?”
The gathering broke into excited discussions and began to shout ideas into the air. The Great Cloud Bird, who had been listening to all this in silence, shook his head in exasperation. “This will not do, G,” he rumbled at Garud and clapped his enormous wings. As always, thunder rolled across the universe, the earth trembled, the stars forgot to shine, all the birds jumped out of their feathers and at last there was silence.
Garud glared at the gathering. “Now, one at a time!” he said imperiously.
“Bury them,” said the blue jay.
“Poop them out, they’ll grow!” called the flowerpecker.
“Weave them into nests,” said the baya.
“Sing them as songs,” fluted the blackbird.
“Hide them under shining pebbles in a shallow stream,” chattered the magpie.
The African grey parrot had been listening quietly to the suggestions. “How about a book?” he said, with a flap of his wings.
“What a good idea!” rumbled the Cloud Bird.
“But we can’t make a book all by ourselves,” squeaked the sparrows in panic. ”We still have stories to collect!”
“I’ll write them out for you,” said the secretary bird, already looking busy.
“I’ll gather the leaves for you to write on,” offered the jacana.
“We’ll give the quills,” honked the geese.
“We’ll collect berries for ink,” trilled the finches.
“I’ll help you with the research,” said the owl, opening one eye.
“And who will edit the collection?” asked the Cloud Bird.
“Raven can do it!” suggested Garud.
“If you want,” shrugged the raven, casually preening his glossy feathers, though everyone could see he was delighted at the honour.
“Alright then! We’ll start sorting what we have,” chirruped the sparrows, now excited about the idea of a book.
“Looks like we are all set then,” said Garud.
“Make sure you let us know from time to time how you get on,” said the Cloud Bird.
“And that concludes our business,” declared Garud at which the bell-bird announced the grand feast that was waiting for them all.
A Story Birds original.
Story copyright © Shaiontoni Bose and Rohini Chowdhury 2024.
We released our first story, A Chirpy Tale, on The Story Birds on April 5, 2021. Since then we have published 75 tales here and have collected several more. We are excited to tell you that we are now in the process of collating all these (and more that we are still collecting) into several books. We will publish regular updates on The Story Birds on how we get on. We will also post regularly on Substack Notes and Instagram for those of our readers who follow us there.
Thank you once again for your unstinting support and encouragement. You can continue to support us in our new endeavour by reading, liking and sharing our updates. You can also become a free or paid subscriber to The Story Birds.
Congratulations! the African grey parrot is right. Write these down so the sparrows don't have to keep them all in their heads. We love the illustrations, and look forward to seeing the books in print.
Iam very ecited about the book. Avery good idea
All the best for this venture