The Enchanted Deer
Shamit was astonished. As if cool white snow were falling from the sky. On the ground people’s minds were unwell. Everything seemed to be congealing. The field where Shamit stood was ringed by ancient banyan trees. In the slanting late afternoon, the sweat of those trees slid down into the soil and soaked the grass. A flock of crows was driving a neelkanth—an Indian roller—before them. The colored bird, exhausted in flight, found the crows arrowing in with a hiss. From the left one crow jabbed its beak into the roller’s ribs; another clamped its throat like a pair of tongs. Staggering, the neelkanth began dropping toward the earth—only to snag upon a leafless branch. Four or five crows now circled and penned it in. Trapped in a wheel of assault, it suffered peck after peck until, at last, it fell lifeless onto the world’s wet breast. Such a cruel falling for so beautiful a bird left Shamit stunned. The snows truly were descending upon the earth, tireless. Shamit began to s...