With Mollah's Help, The Winged Prisoners Fly To Their Freedom

It's a rite that Mollah has been performing for almost a decade now with unfailing regularity. Birdmen with packed cages throng his Kanthalberia home; Mollah buys a dozen birds " and sets them free. A fourth of his paltry monthly earnings of Rs 3,000 is spent on buying and freeing birds. He has a wife and four school-going children, including three daughters, at home. They are skittish about a paterfamilias frittering away his hard-earned money on such a futile ritual. But the tailor doesn't care. 'My wife cribs all the time that I am wasting money, ' says an unfazed Mollah. 'But I don't care. I'll keep setting birds free till my dying day. '

Mollah, a school dropout, is no environmentalist or ngo wannabe freeing birds after a fashion. True, he always loved animals: as a child he used to bring mongrels home from the streets and tuck them under the covers while going to bed. He also kept goats and cows at home, but when his father died in near penury, the family sold them off. He even kept a parakeet in a cage once. Nine years ago, a personal tragedy changed Mollah's life " and he took to freeing birds.

Mollah remembers the time vividly. It was the morning of Id nine muggy summers ago, and he had gone to the cloth market to hawk frocks. His eight-year-old eldest son, Asif Iqbal, and two young nephews were celebrating at home. Then suddenly, the kids decided to take a swim at a neighbouring pond. They drowned within minutes of taking a plunge. 'When I got the news, I was devastated. How could this happen to these innocent children? ' says a misty-eyed Mollah. 'Why did I have to suffer the fate of a father having to see his child die? Why? '

The tailor was stumped for an answer. He spent sleepless nights wondering what he should be doing to forget Iqbal's death, then to honour his memory. 'Death comes so easily, ' he says. 'It's life which is difficult. Sustaining life is more so. I kept on thinking what I could do to save a living creature, to ameliorate its pain. Then I thought about the birds. ' For years, he had moved around in the stuffy bird markets in Calcutta, heard the winged creatures screaming furiously inside the cages and felt bad about it. A few years ago, some of the bird markets shut shop after bird sales were banned. But in lawless Calcutta, a few bird markets still flourish and prosper with impunity after bribing police and forest officials. 'I heard the birds scream in my sleep. And I felt that they must be in so much pain that I could do something for them, ' says Mollah.

So, it has been since then. Twice a week, wizened birdmen, operating a grey market, arrive at his place. Mollah obliges them handsomely, taking a sparrow, a parrot, a mynah, out of the cage at a time and setting them free. A dozen birds, at the very least, fly to their freedom in the smoggy Kanthalberia skies every week. 'I feel so happy after releasing these little creatures, ' says Mollah philosophically. 'They suffer so much pain imprisoned in the cages. How good they must be feeling after flying in the skies once again. '

Mollah's rite to sustain life is the stuff of environmental legends. He isn't exactly ignorant about issues either. 'I know that selling birds is a crime, ' he says. 'But in our country, lawmakers are the biggest lawbreakers. So, what can a harassed common man do? ' If you do your bit like this unsung tailor from Metiabruz, you can make an honest difference. And if you want to help Mollah set more birds free, write to him at Y-206, Kanthalberia Road, Metiabruz, Calcutta-700018.