A Woodpecker's Story

When I was a kid, I was introduced to this tree by my father. And I was amazed. Looking at this giant I realised for the fist time that dad's beak was not the longest thing on this earth. This tree was much larger. Forget the tree. Even its branches were longer. Then one fine morning he told me the secret of our home. He said he pecked this tree with his long one to make this home. I laughed. I did not believe him. He also laughed me off. He said I will learn with time. He also added that he had pecked one too many in his lifetime and now he was growing old. One day I will have to be doing all this. Still in comfort of my existing home, I conveniently forgot all that he had said.

I grew up so did my beak. It was getting longer and stronger. One afternoon I perched and pecked. A berch came off. Big deal. He had talked about an entire home. Not one but too many. I pecked again. I could see a deep scratch. After three days my father was proven right. His laughing face flashed across my eyes. Awakening me to a sudden realisation of the truth which will stick to my fundamentals all through.

Things moved on. We shifted home. Me and him working together to create new ones. Oh, did I tell you why we needed to create new ones? Not that other woodpeckers were forcing us out of our old homes. They were also moving. Reason was something strange. I had seen him many a times. With an iron axe in hand. Two or three of them. They would chop off these big trees. Our homes. And then drag those to be loaded on a trailor. Not a single woodpecker in our locality has been able to figure out why they did this to our homes. Nevertheless, it always happened. They came, they fell our homes, they dragged those and then they were gone. We would fly to next one, peck again endlessly, create a new one. And then they would come again. We did not understand why!!!

One day an intelligent woodpecker came from town. He had been in a zoo. We all thought he would know the reason. We asked him. He was as clueless. All he knew was that these were also creatures of god and called themselves human. He knew one more thing. These humans would exchange our homes for a few pieces of paper with others like them. As sad as we were at the loss of our homes, we all laughed at this. We thought this was foolish. Why work so much for a few pieces of paper? The intelligent woodpecker hushed us. He had seen the world. Paper pieces were very important to these human beings. They could get anything by exchanging these paper pieces. They would fight and kill for these paper pieces. We again laughed and flew off. God gave us everything for free. Why bother felling homes of others and exchanging?

We saw a few more human beings coming. Time to make new home. These human wont ever change. My father was laughing again. This time at them. For a few silly pieces of paper!!! He was still not able to believe the intelligent woodpecker from town.