This is the real story of Choon Choon, the black chicken. Character
include four chickens and Choon Choon, the princess, her cousin and the
princess’s father.
Four Chicks and Choon
Choon
Choon Choon was a black coloured chicken who lived with his
other siblings, which were all different colours, in the Sunday market of
Islamabad. This was before her name was Choon Choon. So for the sake of
reporting let’s call her Blacky. Days were passing by dull and boring because
apparently no one was willing to buy these multi-coloured chicks. But times
were changing and a cute little princess saw Blacky and company. She begged her
father to buy them and soon after Blacky and Company were safely packed in a
cage in the little princess’s house. She played with the little chicks all day
long. She would hold them in her little hands, make crooning sounds to them as
if they were her babies (yeah believe me little girls love to do this!) and run
after them. She was having the time of her life day in and day out. Being an
only child her time was passing quite effectively between playing with chicks
and going to school.
Yellow is missing!
One day when the princess returned from school, she found
the yellow chick missing. She created much uproar but the chick could not be
found. Apparently a cat had taken from inside the cage. The little princess
cried and cried but soon the healing power of the time engulfed her and she
soon forgot her loss.
Stampeding Blue!
Then some days after this incident while she was busy
playing with her chicks (read running after them!) when she accidentally
stepped onto the blue one. OUCH!! (That was nasty). The poor chick died on the
spot. And the princess was devastated by her loss.
Ill Chicky…
Having lost two of her chicks she began to take extra care
of them. But one of them (I don’t remember his colour) got ill and couldn’t
cope with his illness. He too died sometime later.
One can only imagine the poor girl’s sorrow, having lost not
one, not two but THREE of her chicks in a matter of 2 weeks. Now there were
only two remaining, Blacky and a little brown one. Not to be deterred by the
forces of nature, Her Majesty brought the cage inside her house and wouldn’t
let any of them out under any condition. She would not let them run, and would
satisfy herself by caressing them inside the cage. And so Blacky and the brown
continued to live in the royal quarters of her majesty with the honour of being
her most adorable toys. Her Majesty
would occasionally place the cage out in the garage on weekends because she was
home then.
Cat Feast
On one such afternoon, she heard frantic pleading (I don’t
know the hen expression) and rushed out to the cage. What she saw truly
horrified her! A large brown cat was calmly munching on the brown one,
apparently having herself opened the cage. Overcome with rage, the princess
rushed to rescue her wounded chick, but it was too late. Poor Browny was laid
to rest in the flowerbed.
Blacky Alone!
Now, with having experienced the deaths of four loved toys
on a personal level, the princess shut the blacky into his cage. And regularly
fed her and watered her. But she wouldn’t let her out of her cage. No sir, never
again. She even brought a lock for her cage. Being the only one looked after,
Blacky grew quickly and soon the cage was too small for her. So the princess
brought a bigger cage for her. Blacky would sit forlornly all day, waiting for
the time when the princess would come home, and the make small choon choon sounds at her. Sometimes in
the middle of night when the princess woke up, Blacky would recognize her voice
and choon choon frantically, wanting
to get all the attention. Days went by thus and still Blacky was confined in
her cage. She was now almost a hen, but could only make choon choon sounds much like ultrasonic whining of the dogs. She
learnt to sit for hours on end and forgot the use of her legs. The days of
running and playing and pecking were like a distant chickhood to her. And so,
weak and dull, able to make only choon choon
sounds, Blacky, now aptly named Choon Choon, passed three months in her cage.
Arrival of the Cousin
One fine afternoon, the princess’s elder cousin came to
visit her palace. He was very excited to see Choon Choon and wanted to play
with her. So he requested the princess to let out Choon Choon in the garage.
The princess initially refused but when her cousin assured her that no cat
would dare harm Choon Choon in their presence she agreed and let Choon Choon
out. The cousin expected the chick to start running all over the place like all
hens do, but he was astonished when Choon Choon just stayed put. Two months of
cage life had taken away the strength of her legs. And much though the princess
coaxed Choon Choon, Choon Choon simply would not budge. The princess got very sad. But her cousin
explained to her that Choon Choon will be able to walk again but she needs
time. He suggested that the princess take Choon Choon to the park in the
evening.
Choon Choon Goes to
the park!
Everyone at the park, especially the princess’s friends were
very excited to see Choon Choon. As soon as her father put down the cage, two
of Her Majesty’s friends came over and asked if they could hold her. Her Majesty
happily gave them Choon Choon, and then for the next ten minutes Choon Choon
was subjected to all kinds of little girl affectations, crooning sounds, a lot
of AWWWWW She’s so cute, OOOOHHHHHH , AAAAAAHS and pats and rubs. This was a
world new to Choon Choon. But she was not complaining. She was enjoying all the
attention. Soon the kids were tired of playing (caressing) with Choon Choon and
left her to her own devices. Now under the vigilante eyes of the cousin and her
majesty father, Choon Choon was left standing in the vast grass ground.
Choon Choon Rehab
First, she surveyed the ground bleary eyed. Then she
tentatively took a step forward. And having conquered the world calmly stood
surveying the ground. Then she remembered that she had a beak too, and started
pecking at the concrete ground. Apparently her vision was affected too, because
she failed to peck at anything falling in the category of hen food. Items on
her peck list included but not limited to: toffee wrappers, stones, dirt
stones, scraps of plastic.
Then the cousin took pity on Choon Choon and coaxed her
towards some flowerbeds where there were a lot of ants. Standing corrected
Choon Choon happily started pecking away on……………stones AGAIN. Only when the
cousin picked up a particularly big ant and dropped it in front of Choon Choon
did she regard the weird moving black thing as food. Move one step, survey,
Peck Peck Peck…….. Move one step, survey, Peck Peck Peck…….. Move one step,
survey, Peck Peck Peck…….. Move one step, survey, Peck Peck Peck……..
This went on for most of the evening. Then Choon Choon spied
her cage sitting on the grass outside the flowerbed. She mustered up all her
courage and some of her strength and took two steps towards the 3 inches high
bricks bordering the flowerbed. Upon landing on the other side, her legs gave
way and she had to spread her massive wings to balance herself. The scene was
comical as much as it was pitiful. But the princess and her father didn’t lose
hope. They kept bringing Choon Choon daily to the park with them. Gradually
Choon Choon regained her lost strength and even the squawk in her voice, which
is the sole province of hens.
Choon Choon the black
HEN!
You will be delighted to know that Choon Choon has started
functioning as a normal hen, running and pecking at all and sundry. And she has
made friends with kids at the park, and occasionally lets them pet her. The
princess meanwhile is just as possessive about Choon Choon as before, and
sometimes runs with Choon Choon, only to fall back tired. Sometimes she manages
to catch up with poor Choon Choon, and grabs her tail. Her Majesty’s words fill
the writer (the cousin) with an inexplicable happiness, when she says that:
“ChoonChoon itna tez
bhaagta ha k kabi kabi mjhse pakra he ni jata. Me thak jati hun per Choon Choon
nahi thakta.”
English:
“Choon Choon runs so
fast that sometimes I can’t even catch him. I get tired but Choon Choon
doesn’t.”
And that, folks, is exactly how a hen should behave.
