Intolerance by TIMIR BANERJEE , MD
The guinea is always tucked up and compact It walks like a soldier who is fit and gallant and looks smart . But Sappho has an eternal need for motherhood And I feel it Cause I let her mate die , by being careless and angry , for its disobedience .
It was a late September evening When it was time for everyone to be in I stood at the duck house where the guineas always hung around The ducks went in as did one of the guineas The other one was a bit ornery and kept sitting on the fence post ignoring me I was in a hurry I had a date and I didn ’ t want to be late And I didn ’ t like to be slighted or disrespected by a guinea hen So I closed the door and left it to make it on it ’ s own .
Next morning as I walked through the sunflower patch as I always did to see if they were taller than I And I always picked few seeds of the flowers , for the birds to eat , that they could see But they couldn ’ t get there because of the net on the building surrounding the area I was sad to find the feathers of the guinea strewn around the base of the tall stems of the proud sunflowers standing harmless and free That mocked me for my impatience and failure in animal husbandry .
So the widowed guinea suffers the pang of not being able to be fruitful in its maternal instincts But it protects the little ducklings and walks with them in a body guard stance It looks at me now and then with a scowl on its face as I throw the cracked corn on the ground and fill water in small containers so the babies don ’ t drown .
I have taken away its ability to be a mom That deprivation is more painful because she knows that she is a female and fertile And the farmer blocked her from having the joy of motherhood that spring brings with the chicks around that run back and forth entertaining with their baby sounds .
In America where degree of culpability is intent dependent I can almost hear the rooster say to the Tom , “ Your Honor , the farmer was not right and was intolerant . The bird had served him well and ate all the ticks . He made a distinct noise that made it easy to locate him always . Leaving him exposed to an inhospitable environment for oppositional defiant disorder was criminally negligent That would tantamount to a weaponized behavior that ended being an aviacide . It was an act that brought loneliness and deprived Sappho of conjugal affection .”
The rooster wearing a British wig on its scalp carried on with unmuted admonition The ducks , your honor , are considered to be Hindus and the chicken to be Muslims according to some old religious tradition And is depicted on the walls of Indian monuments And thus this concept has been ingrained in the minds of younger generation The guineas and the turkeys have no religious persuasion And the guineas don ’ t help the farmer meet his pecuniary obligation He just has those to add diversity in his bird population . Therefore , this act of intolerance towards a minority enclave is a form of discrimination . I listened and before the Tom with his prominent big wig head dress would have a chance to pronounce its judgment I said quietly I would plead guilty and save the embarrassment of a prolonged trial with witnesses and jury pool formation .
Sometimes I weep but at other times I act proud and indifferent as though I am innocent But really , I feel sad and impaled by my guilt , that makes me bleed for my past action from which there is no turning around . So I find peace and solace in sitting down , and by telling her about Sarah , Rebekah and Rachel , the three great Biblical women And reading Exodus 23 : 25-26 where God said that no woman in this land shall miscarry or be barren !
Dr . Banerjee is a clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of Louisville .
December 2022 21