Fortune Teller (standard:Fan Fiction, 3346 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Nov 06 2010	Views/Reads: 3079/2170	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A fictional story of a man who uses a parrot to help him make a living as a fortune teller.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

Now, Basheer would read aloud what written on the card with a voice of a
preacher “you have been experiencing lots of problems recently, but all 
these going to end soon,” Basheer has several decks of cards. Each deck 
has cards with same material written on them. If the approaching 
customer is student, he will place the deck of cards that each 
highlights success in education and upcoming job opportunities. If the 
customer is a middle age man, its all about money problems and 
unexpected windfall thru lottery win or some kind of godly 
intervention. The first line defines the problem; marriage, jobs, 
education or health problem and the second line tackles the problem 
with impending solution. Basheer reads the first line with emotion and 
the second line with some kind of soothing voice to make the customer 
feels good. At the end, the customer leaves with some kind of 
satisfaction and hopefulness. 

In free time, he fabricates and writes human problems on the cards with
hypothetical impending resolution for each problem he creates; after 
all, a problem with no possible solution is no good business in fortune 
telling. 

The bright red flowers of Poinciana trees became part of an unusual
entertainment to the foot-path dwellers. Basheer practically invented a 
game using the stamen from Poinciana flowers. The competitors pluck a 
single stamen at a time from the center of a Poinciana flower carefully 
and used as a sword to fight with one another until the tip of long 
slender stamen, a bright yellow ball of pollen resembling a stylish hat 
knocked off from its base. Whoever knock off the hat first, won the 
game. With abundant supply of flowers, there is no scarcity of stamens 
for the game to continue for hours. Basheer with his quick fingers 
handled the stamen like real sword and kept knocking out opponents' 
stamen tip to win the game again and again, until everybody got tired 
and settled for a short nap under the shade of Poinciana. Between 
stamen fights and his creative writings on the cards, Basheer attended 
customers whenever one comes along eager to know their future written 
on cards randomly picked by Rama the parrot. 

Rama, the old parrot is a pro in the business. Basheer bought the parrot
from a roaming fortune teller in the business for a long time. Since 
Rama was trained in the business, it fetched more money than parrots 
sold in the market as pets. Now, Basheer wants to expand his business. 
He went to the local bazaar and purchased two young parrot chicks from 
a tribesman. It is only tribesmen that sell exotic birds like parrots 
and sometimes young reptiles, small turtles etc. in the local bazaars. 

Basheer named the two parrots he purchased in the bazaar as Nazeer and
Sheeba. He could not tell which one is male and which one is female, or 
both male or female and yet he named one parrot Nazeer, a male name and 
Sheeba, a female name. Basheer carefully placed Nazeer and Sheeba in 
the empty compartments of his parrot cage. 

Parrots communicate in Chilka, an universal language of parrots consists
of a series of whistles, some short, some long and few high pitched 
shrieks in between. While there are regional differences in 
communication pattern, at large, all parrots understand Chilka 
language. Parrots are good in mimicry as well. Rama, the veteran looked 
at the newcomers with grace and spoke in Chilka language “well come to 
your new home.” 

Nazeer and Sheeba turned their head and recognized Rama as an aged bird
from conspicuous red ring of fine feathers around its neck. While slow 
in movements, Rama slowly walked towards Nazeer only separated by the 
vertical steel spokes “Don't be afraid, at least you have my company.” 

“Thank you sir, you are kind,” replied Nazeer. 

“How you both ended up here.” 

“While my parents were out flying to fetch some food, a tribesman
climbed the tree and pulled me from the nest hidden in a large Mango 
tree canopy. The next thing I knew, I ended up here in the cage, I am 
glad to see you sir,” said Nazeer in a soft voice while Sheeba stood 
close to Nazeer separated by the thin steel spokes. 

“Well, I was careless in moving and fell off the nest, when a boy picked
me up and sold to a tribesman.” Sheeba explained. 

The bird cage is narrow, hardly any space to move around except to walk
few steps either way. The fuzzy feathers more like stumps some light 
green and some yellow spread unevenly on pink exposed skin of Nazeeer 
and Sheeba. For the first few days, the new comers were nervous and 
hardly spoke, eating intermittently on guava fruit pieces Basheer left 
in the cage. 

Nazeer and Sheeba watched Rama doing card tricks in front of spectators
each day and couldn't comprehend the act. 

“Sir, we watched your performance with the deck of cards, but we didn't
understand the whole exercise, except you were fed after each 
performance,” said Nazeer addressing Rama with respect. 

“It is complicated, contrary to what we birds think about humans as
scary and monstrous, they are timid, foolish and live precarious lives. 
They have no faith in themselves and rude to each other just to feel 
good about themselves, they constantly fear about their own future.” 
“So, they turn to fortune tellers like Basheer to know their future in 
advance to feel good that they know what to expect,” explained Rama. 

“I wish we know our future in advance so we could have escaped from
being stolen from our nest,” Sheeba lamented loudly. 

“Oh no, it is all hocus pocus, nobody can foretell one's future, even
Basheer has no clue what could happen to him in couple of days or 
within next hour. He is making a miserable living from foolishness of 
others,” said Rama. 

“In couple of days, Basheer would start your training in picking cards
and you both will join me in the fortune telling business,” predicted 
Rama with confidence. 

“You mean we will be enslaved lifelong here in the cage and help Basheer
expand his livelihood,” sobbed Sheeba. 

“So, we know our future then,” concluded Nazeer. 

“Not at all, your future is in your hands, you don't' have to spend rest
of your lives trapped in this cage like me.” “I am too old to make 
changes now, but you two, can get out with a plan,” comforted Rama. 

“How can we escape, we don't even know how to fly,” lamented Nazeer and
Sheeba. 

“More likely, Basheer would clip your wing tips to prevent you flying
while he will train you in card picking, that's what happened to me, I 
could not fly, even if I want to, you see, Basheer routinely clips my 
wing tips to prevent my wings to develop fully to enable flying, but I 
will teach you both how you can develop confidence in Basheer that you 
won't fly away even with your wings fully developed, that would 
discourage him to clip your wing tips to begin with ,” explained 
thoughtful Rama. 

“You will do this to us, sir.” said the parrot chicks. 

“Sure, your future is in your hands, and you will prove yourselves with
a good game plan,” now Rama is excited. “Basheer bought both of you to 
increase his business since I am old and slow, and you both are young, 
active and quick in playing the card game to attract more customers, 
now if you play your cards right and become active participants in 
Basheer's game, he feels confident that you won't fly away and may not 
clip your wings,” Rama is now thinking loud for the benefit of the 
youngsters. 

“When Basheer lets you out of the cage to train you, feel confident and
show respect to Basheer, play with him, slowly climb onto his hand and 
jump onto his shoulder, kiss his neck tenderly with your beak, as if 
you are affectionate to him, these acts would encourage Basheer give 
you more freedom outside the cage than he gives me, he constantly fears 
that I may fly away, that's why, he clips my wings on a regular basis. 
But with your antics, you can make him feel comfortable and you can be 
more creative in picking cards rather than straight business like 
method I was trained to do, afterwards, I would come out with a 
full-proof escape plan for you both,” comforted wise Rama. 

The parrot chicks gained confidence from Rama's assurances and prepared
to play Rama's game plan to set free themselves from Basheer. 

As expected, on one fine day, Basheer let the parrot chicks out of the
cage into the open and fed them with seeds and guava fruit to make them 
comfortable outside the cage. Keeping Rama's plan in mind, both Nazeer 
and Sheeba moved around on the cloth spread in front of the cage. As a 
next step in training, Basheer carefully placed a deck of cards in 
front of Nazeer and nudged Nazeer closer to the cards. Nazeer with its 
tender beak touched the deck as if trying to sniff and carefully lifted 
the top card and walked away from the deck to place it on the cloth as 
Sheeba looked anxiously. When it came to Sheeba's turn, she moved 
slowly towards the deck of cards and instead of picking up the top 
card, she walked around the deck of cards three times as Hindus perform 
pradhakshna or walk around their deities in a temple. Basheer was 
mesmerized in looking at this act. 

As the training progressed, both Nazeer and Sheeba competed against each
other in impressing Basheer with their creative acts. For example, 
Nazeer before picking up the cards, performed pranaam or salutation 
Hindu style by lowering slowly its neck few times in front of his 
master Basheer. Sheeba stepped up its act by performing a fancy foot 
work while walking around the deck of cards. While the young parrots 
performed their creative movements, Rama watched with great 
satisfaction from inside the cage. 

“Humans think that we the birds have little brains and cannot think,
even they use derogatory expression “bird brain” to put down among 
themselves, but see how much destruction humans create with their 
complicated thought process.” “They kill each other with sophisticated 
weapons, produce weapons of mass destruction to wipe out cultures and 
destroy the fragile environment in the name of human progress,” 
lectured Rama while the young parrot pair listened with respect. 

The Poinciana trees around the pond also gave temporary sanctuary for
wild parrots and other birds on their daily route to feeding grounds. 
On occasions, wild parrots communicate with Rama and share their 
experiences in living free, at the same time expressed their sympathy 
for Rama's house arrest. Once in a while, the wild parrots encourage 
Rama to free himself from Basheer's cage to fly with them to freedom. 
Rama while thanking his fellow parrots' interest, declined their offer 
of help to free him from captivity , not that he is happy in captivity 
but felt too old to live independently in last leg of his life. 

But now with two young ones placed in captivity by Basheer, Rama decided
to take up the help the wild parrots always offered to free enslaved 
parrots. During one of the stops on Poinciana tree, the wild parrots 
were introduced to Nazeer and Sheeba by wise Rama. The wild parrots 
were saddened to hear the story how Nazeer and Sheeba were stolen by 
the tribesmen. They all voiced their anger on the illegal trade of 
exotic birds in the market. They assured Nazeer and Sheeba that they 
would do everything to help them free themselves from Basheer. The wild 
parrots showed confidence in Rama's game plan to set free the young 
parrot couple. 

As time progressed, both Nazeer and Sheeba grew fast into young adult
birds with bright green feathers and bright red strong beak. With new 
antics, Nazeer and Sheeba attracted more customers. According to Rama's 
game plan, one day Nazeer rather than dancing with fancy foot work 
before picking up the cards, suddenly flew several feet above the 
ground in a circular motion and landed on the Basheer's shoulder. Few 
customers waiting for their fortune reading were thrilled at the act. 
As Basheer looked at Nazeer with amazement, Nazeer slowly descended 
from his shoulder towards the deck of cards. Sheeba followed Nazeer but 
stepped up the act by flying in circles few times before landing on the 
shoulder of a customer before walking down slowly towards the deck of 
cards. Nazeer and Sheeba became actors in a side show Nazeer was 
thrilled to perform each time when several spectators gathered to see 
the performance. At the end of each performance, the spectators dropped 
few coins whether they opted for fortune reading or not. This became a 
side business for Basheer in addition to fortune telling. Basheer made 
more money from the side show than fortune telling. He fed Nazeer and 
Sheeba with all kinds of fruits rather than bland guava fruit all the 
time. Rama was happy the way events turning out in favor of the escape 
plan as Nazeer and Sheeba earned the full confidence of Basheer and he 
never contemplated to clip their wing tips. 

Basheer, now with increased income from the parrot side shows started
buying food at a roadside restaurant rather buying scrap meals. Now, he 
has no time for playing sword games with Poinciana stamens or writing 
new scenarios on the fortune cards. Most people gathered to see Nazeer 
and Sheeba fly in various formations to eventually land on shoulder of 
one or two fortunate spectators. The clever parrots started imitating 
people's voice, some time laughing , crying or singing popular tunes 
Basheer taught t them meticulously. 

Rama in consultations with wild parrots decided that time has come to
stage the final phase of the escape plan. On one bright afternoon, Rama 
alerted Nazeer and Sheeba that it is time for them to gain freedom and 
explained in clear terms not to back off from the plan in the last 
minute since a flock of wild parrots would participate simultaneously 
in the escape plan. Several spectators, many returning home from the 
work and students way home from school gathered under the Poinciana 
tree on the edge of the Peerla Koneeru to see the parrot side show, 
Basheer proudly released Nazeer and Sheeba from the cage to start their 
act. The young parrots flew in circles high and above the spectators, 
but continued to fly at higher altitude than usual to the surprise of 
Basheer. Suddenly a flock of wild parrots descended from the Poinciana 
tree to join Nazeer and Sheeba, and all of them flew swiftly as a group 
in the direction of Police Commissioner's Office building. The 
spectators cheered and clapped thinking it is part of the show and the 
birds would return back to land. Basheer suddenly jumped up to stand on 
his toes to watch his birds get away with wild parrots into the horizon 
and appeared as small dots on the sky at they flew further and further 
into the distance. There was confusion among the spectators, some 
thought it was part of the show and some looked in the direction of the 
birds' flight in disbelief. Basheer confused and dumbfounded, with his 
mouth open continued to look in the direction of path the parrots 
escaped. 

Rama looked at the entire event with great pleasure and for the first
time sang with his sweet voice “Don't despair Basheer, let the parrots 
enjoy their freedom. Your next act is to build a small wooden portable 
place of worship to place a Hindu deity and a replica of Muslim martyr, 
an unusual combination. Believers would flock and you as Basheer Baba 
would prosper with wealth and that is my prediction as a fortune 
teller.” 


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