Deep into the forest, along the riverside, was my cottage. I was sitting along the windowsill sipping a cup of tea, adoring the beauty of nature. The sun had a tough time penetrating through the dense thickets of canopy cover, the temperature was subtle and pleasant. I took my pen and started to scribble, inhaling the scenic scent of the red sandalwood trees and the British-influenced eucalyptus trees. Just then, I saw a girl outside the cottage under a Silver Oak Tree in the middle of the tea estate. She looked bubbly in her blue gown. Her chubby cheeks curled at the gentle breeze that swayed across.

She waved at me from a distance and called out my name in a melodious tone. I was stunned. Her voice reminded me of this beautiful migrant, Pied Cuckoo. It was pleasing, calm and cute.

Meanwhile, my mind was bombarded with many questions. Who is she? How does she know my name? Do I know her? She looks familiar, though.

Maybe my binocular could help, I told myself and took it for a better view. It was an old Olympus 8x40 binocular, which I had been using extensively for bird watching.

Positioning the binocular, I saw the girl under the same tree. She was fair and small, she had short hair that was left loose and fell all over her face. (I definitely knew her).

I narrowed my focus and saw something astonishing. My eyes widened.

It is crane!!!!! Sarus crane, I screamed! But how? They were soaring up to the sky from around her. What is she? I wondered.

While she was standing still, hundreds of cranes flew away. One of them came near my window, perched on a branch, jumped for a while, and left. Was it trying to convey something or checking the strength of the branch, I never knew! But it was a stunning sight! Not just the bird, but the very sight of it coming from within her, one by one; juvenile-then-turned-adult, stretching its wings and taking a flight, just like that! It was like it was coming from an alternate universe….

After about a minute, all the cranes took flight and were lost in woods, I turned around to check on the girl and she was gone…

Unable to digest the scene that just happened, I took another sip of tea and continued writing. Words started to flow and so did the melody of Malabar whistling thrush from a distance.

All I could think of, was her eyes and its magnificent radiance. Maya, I named her, a scintillating sun who appeared in woods and gave birth to those wondrous cranes, that flew away in flocks into the high sky. When she stood still, she was like an angel shining in the sunshine. Her presence made the silver Oak Tree shimmer like a fair-weather cumulus cloud.

As I continued writing, I sensed a brief movement along the tea estate. People were screaming. "It's a bear", "Run for your life”.

Panic stricken; people were running all around the place. Some were climbing the trees; some were running towards the building and some were sprinting towards the stream. The Sloth bear seemed to have no idea of what was happening. But he looked disturbed and got agitated because of the chaos. He stopped walking and started munching the tea leaves, which caused further uproar amongst the estate labourers. One of them went close, with a stick and tried to drive off the animal. But the bear pounced on him and smacked him with its sharp claws.

While the poor guy was battling for his life, the bear suddenly stopped and stepped aside. It started to soothe the wounds instead, which surprisingly began to heal. I could not believe my own eyes. I was witnessing a visual marvel! The bear seemed to be obeying someone, it was constantly nodding and waving to the nearest tree. I narrowed my focus to the tree to see Maya! She was standing up on the branches of the silver oak tree and I saw a pair of Malabar Whistling thrushes on her shoulders.

As I admired her from my windowpane, she turned around and looked at me. She looked absolutely stunning with her round eyes surmounted by kajal. Her intense pale-blue eyes were piercing and angelic. Besides, her strong cheekbones and rosy lips were sparkling. The dark hair added colour to the entire surface. I was totally immersed into her when I heard something out of nowhere, ‘Alright, that's enough!’

‘What? Where did that come from?’ I was shocked.

With the wink of an eye, the thrushes flew away and like a flash, she appeared on my window ledge alongside me. She came closer and hugged me, I was paralysed. Her hands were hot; it was soothing in that cold weather. She shrivelled as my breath fell on her neck and ears. Heat soared with the tightness of her grip and beads of sweat dripped down my brows. She then kissed me, with her soft juicy lips. It was deep and therapeutic. I lost myself in that kiss and started to whisper – My Maya…

“He is whispering again. Nurse, call the girl,” screamed the doctor who was examining my file, while I was on bed due Alzheimer’s disease for the past 5 years.