Tight spots

The security person directed my car to the right. As I stopped behind the red car, I realized that the car would drive away once its occupants had alighted it.  The occupants of the car were a colleague and her son. They were taking a few moments to get down. I was not in a hurry and sat listening to the words "crazy, crazy, crazy,...". I loved the song and did not want to get off the car till the crazy chanting ended. Soon, I realized that I the boy's floaters lay on the floor behind my seat. We had taken him to the hospital a few days earlier when he had broken his nose. More than a month had passed since that day but I had missed giving the floaters back to him. I got down from the car, opened the rear door, picked up the floaters, closed the door and walked up to the red car. I saw my colleague through the droplets of water on the foggy window. I knocked the window. She turned with a jerk and smiled on seeing me. I lifted up the floaters. She opened the door and thanked me with a sheepish grin as she took the floaters off my hand. I smiled and went back to my car. I got in and continued listening to the song. The occupants of the car got down but the driver did not move the car away. I got impatient and asked the security person to request the driver to take away the car. He went ahead and informed the driver to move away with a polite smile. The driver moved away the car and I went ahead and parked my car.

I got out of the car, took my bag, locked the car and walked away. As is usually the case, I took a few steps before turning around to look at my car. The car has been with me for more than twelve years and I care for it more than I should. This parting glance has become a part of our goodbye ritual every day. Usually, I give the car a quick glance and walk away but today something was out of place. I saw a few strands of grass sticking out from the side of the bonnet. To my amazement, the strands moved as I glanced away from the car. I looked back and sure enough found the grass moving. I realized that it was not moving in the wind but it was trying to wriggle out of the bonnet. Though I was a poor student of biology I possess sufficient knowledge in the subject to realize that grass does not attempt to wriggle out of tight places. I turned around and walked towards the car. As I approached the car, I realized that the grass like creature was a distant cousin of the actor who played the part of Mantis in Kungfu Panda. By this time, another colleague joined me in marveling the green insect struggling to get out of the tight spot. I wondered stupidly "If it could get in there, it can surely get out. Why is it struggling so much?" Fortunately, my colleague was smarter than I. He said "it must have blown in by the wind and now is stuck there. You should open the bonnet". The explanation seemed sound and I unlocked the bonnet. My friend said "Oh damn! It went inside. Let me take it out." He carefully picked up the Mantis and walked to the side of the road.

As he approached the fence by the side of the road, the Mantis got impatient and decided to wing it across the fence to a tree. My colleague tried to stop it by saying "Stop! Don't fly". But the Mantis did not pay heed either due to its lack of ears and/or due to its inability to understand language. The Mantis landed on one of the lower branches of the tree. Almost immediately a babbler babbled. Here I would like to exercise my bird brain for a moment. The babbler is a noisy bird that is noisier than a group of young children on a study trip. It is one of the birds other than the crow and mynah that I can identify. Oh! I forgot! I can also identify chicken especially when it served on a plate. 

The babbler was sitting a few branches above and jumped off its feathers when it saw the green object flying below. In a matter of seconds, the bird's brain informed the bird that it had prior knowledge of the green flying object and that this knowledge was filed under the section "FOOD". The babbler stopped babbling and sprung into action instantly. It pounced on the Mantis, which becoming aware of its precarious position jumped to the floor. I heard my colleague utter a painful "Oh no!" It was not the Mantis' lucky day. The babbler jumped to the ground and picked the struggling Mantis in its beak. I felt my colleague's pain in his voice when he said "Why did you fly away!" From somewhere within my head I heard Elton John sing "The Circle of Life". 

I smiled as I thought "and we thought we were doing the Mantis a favour".