The Princess and her Chicks

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.