The Kākāpō doesn’t Fly by Shreyasi Majumdar
At 35,000 feet, the world is expansive, surreal. The orange-tinted clouds are a giant carpet, a powder blanket on which the airplane glides effortlessly. But more than the ethereal vastness, the Kākāpō that surveys me through the Plexiglas intrigues me. That rare, flightless Aotearoan treasure, its owl-parrot face a conundrum.
I recognize it from the ‘Guide to Kiwi Avifauna’ yawning on my lap. The large grey beak, short legs and big feet are unmistakable. Its mottled, moss green plumage reminds me of distant Indian lushness. It reminds me of you.
Remember Mumbai’s Brahmini Kites and the Pink Flamingo rivers? Or simmering Rajasthan, where we met? We spun each other through time’s intangible fabric, dreaming with Bustards and Hornbills, Kingfishers and Crested Serpent Eagles. Our hearts beat to the rhythm of Ibisbills and Woodpeckers, we soared with Floricans, plunged with Lapwings, crested with Trogons and danced with Nuthatches.
And one day, norms swooped down on me like raptors, their claws sharpened by convention, their hunting beaks raring to shred non-conformation like a piece of raw meat.
“We didn’t educate you so you could spend your days idly dreaming away your future.”
Flights of fancy were traded in for a flight to Auckland – a prospective degree in business management gutting erstwhile visions, erecting concrete potential. They all said I wouldn’t regret it.
The melancholy bird watches, asking frozen questions I cannot answer. Even as clouds swallow the sun, the Kākāpō evanesces into the inevitable blackness. But it doesn’t fly.
Shreyasi Majumdar is a writer and researcher based in New Zealand. She writes lyrical, emotionally resonant fiction that often explores themes of memory, loss, and nature. Her short stories have appeared in The Linnet’s Wings, Flash Frontier, and The Flash Fiction Magazine. Shreyasi is currently completing a doctoral thesis on environmental sustainability in agri-food systems and has a background in journalism and editorial work.
Photo by Andreas Sjövall on Unsplash
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