The Peacock Dance – Recollections

The sudden wild cry of excitement startled me from my reverie. It was an unremarkable Sunday and I was occupied with the same inane activities that filled up most of my Sundays, the only difference this Sunday being the outburst of cry in the afternoon – an uncommon occurrence.

It had been a hot day, bright and blinding one’s eyes whoever ventured out. But as the day wore on, it had become resilient, showing signs of a blustery evening, promising thunder-squalls and copious rainfall. On such earlier occasions, hailstones the size of young, strong gooseberries had landed heavily on the time-worn, brittle clay tiles which sat on our roof-work of bamboo poles, shattering the tiles and making way for the heavenly liquid initially to drip at random and soon after in a continuous stringy waterfall, linking the floor and the leaky roof, thus making a mess of our halls and passages.

Sorry, I have strayed from the main topic. As I have narrated above, the cry drew my attention to the present reality and I found myself soon at the origin of the cry. It was our backyard where about a dozen children of all ages had gathered, watching some moving object with the usual innocent interest that become the children of such age. I moved forward thrusting my way ever so gently, only to find an adult peacock running crazily across, with no specific purpose or aim. It seemed to me that the cries of the crowd had upset his rhythm and he was trying to plan his next move, even while he was crazily moving about. Being the senior among the crowd of children, I exercised my authority by silencing the crowd. Once silence fell, the peacock stopped his movement and stood still, watching the crowd with a sort of uncertainty, while we returned his glance with a friendly smile.

He was a grand specimen of his breed, well built, graceful in his movement, with a touch of the regal about him. All this while, he seemed content to keep his grand, long, colourful tail hanging close to the ground, occasionally letting it sweep the ground in some sporadic movement. While we were waiting to see what he was going to do next, we could feel cool breeze sweeping around us. The sky had by then darkened a bit and gray clouds had sprung up from nowhere. At the same time, we could see the emergence of a colourful rainbow arching the sky.

It was probably for this wonderful moment the peacock must have been waiting. The changed atmosphere had cast a spell on him and he soon unwound himself in a spontaneous and sprightly move, bristling his colourful tail into a gorgeous fan, and started his dancing steps. It was a wonderful sight and we stood spellbound as he danced his steps with gay abandon, totally unmindful of the crowd that had recently upset him.

I don’t know how long this heavenly choreography lasted, for it stopped as abruptly as it started. We were jolted out of our trance by the sudden thunderclap and the lightning which probably had upset him.

In a fleeting second, he took off and vanished from our presence, leaving us with gaping mouths and greatly upset. This momentous scene has found a permanent place in my memory and it often surfaces whenever the sky sports a colourful rainbow, and thunderous clouds sail across the threatening sky, promising rain and hailstones.

Raghav R
09.07.2020

© Raghav R