{"id":721,"date":"2021-11-27T21:33:04","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T16:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=721"},"modified":"2021-11-27T21:33:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T16:03:04","slug":"dove-with-red-dots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2021\/11\/27\/dove-with-red-dots\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove With Red Dots"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was only October, but the weather was freezing cold in Varmaska. The houses along the narrow street leading to the city centre were deserted. A few hundred people inhabiting Varmaska had locked themselves inside their homes.<\/p>\n

It was very cold for the birds as well, who were not prepared for the early winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat shall we do?\u201d a dove asked its fellows, all of them nesting on the roof of an abandoned house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people do not come out. There is nothing much to eat. It is very cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All doves decided to fly out of Varmaska, but a special dove with a red dot on its grey feathers chose not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not go,\u201d said the dove.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut how will you survive here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my home. I do not know how I will survive, but I will not give up because of this harsh weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

So it happened. All but one dove remained on the roof.<\/p>\n

Soon, the bats took over the abandoned roof. Seeing the lonely dove there, they were surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did you not leave?\u201d the bats asked the dove.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Illustration by: Danish Mir<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without waiting for the answer, they quipped. \u201cYou will leave soon, and then all this will be ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dove, however, didn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

The weather turned harsher. Snowy one day, stormy the next, and bone-chilling the third.<\/p>\n

The dove stayed. Staying hungry mostly, only venturing out once in a long while to find something to eat.<\/p>\n

Seeing the dove\u2019s resilience, the bats tried to help it.<\/p>\n

And after many months, the weather turned.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Illustration by: Danish Mir<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The warmth of the sun turned the plants green. The people came out again.<\/p>\n

The doves came back to reclaim their home.<\/p>\n

The dove with red dots was there to welcome everyone home, as the bats departed to look for somewhere else to make their shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout you, we could not have thought of returning. You showed us how not to give up,\u201d the dove was told.<\/p>\n

…ENDS….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was only October, but the weather was freezing cold in Varmaska. The houses along the narrow street leading to the city centre were deserted. A few hundred people inhabiting Varmaska had locked themselves inside their homes. It was very cold for the birds as well, who were not prepared for the early winter. \u201cWhat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[233,232,230,191,12,11,8,231],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-bats","tag-cold","tag-dove","tag-home","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-kashmir","tag-kids-stories","tag-winter","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}