Lakshmi Narayan

There was once an angel, beautiful beyond compare, with teeth like white marble, hair like black coal, eyes a deerlike amber, skin the colour of honey and wings of shimmering gold. She was so wondrous to behold that all who saw her fell in love with her.

Then one day, she fell down from the sky and uttered a cry so piteous at the sight of her mangled wings that the Creator himself was moved to do something about it. He packed her off for rest and recovery to a facility he’d just set up. “Don’t come back till you’ve sprouted new wings,” he instructed her.

At first, she hated the place where she’d been sent. It was cold and grey and bleak and dreary. She moped around, mourning the loss of her precious wings. Her skin turned sallow, her hair became dull and limp, her eyes red and swollen, her smile drooped.

Soon, however, she looked up and saw the starry sky and the moonbeams bathing everything in a silvery shine. When she awoke the next morning, the sun was rising like a ripe mango, flowers were nodding, the leaves dancing, celebrating the dawn of a new day.

Her spirits too lifted up as she capered about like a frisky fawn. Days later, she could feel little stubs on her back and knew that her wings were starting to grow again. And sure enough, they were soon restored to their former glory, as she darted and fluttered to her heart’s content. Now healed, it was time to give thanks to the Creator and wing her way back to where she’d come from.

My friends, by now you must have guessed I made up this story. But let me tell you, we’re all angels with broken wings, sent here to mend ourselves with laughter and gaiety. By clasping joy with our whole being, we too shall one day take to the air and rejoin our Creator.

We are all angels with broken wings trying to find our way back to the Source.

(Excerpted from Fables from Beyond, Authors Upront, 2020)

Journalist, author and animal activist Lakshmi Narayan is a former assistant editor of Femina and former editor of Eve’s Weekly & Flair