It was silence everywhere. Towering places of worship were trying to touch the blue sky. A pair of birds were watching the high buildings of Jerusalem. They were flying and talking about human beings. Suddenly they saw thousands of people shouting in front of a high building. “Look there” one of the birds said to his friend “What is happening?”

“I told you” The second bird replied “They are God’s so called best creation they cannot breathe without violence. It’s hard for them to be peaceful.” Both birds sighed and kept flying.

They were flying continuously so they were very tired. They planned to stay somewhere to rest but they were waiting for a suitable place. Finally they found a dome of a beautiful building behind a peaceful lake. It was a nice place. There was a large lawn beside the lake where people were throwing some corn to welcome the travelling birds. There seemed to be nice people. The birds liked this place a lot and so they spent two years there; during those two years they saw the exchange of bullets between two groups of people, several times. They were used to such events and hence it was no longer shocking for them.

One day they heard a big explosion. The whole area was covered in clouds of smoke. All the birds flew away from the lake in all directions and disappeared into the smoke. The birds were terrified. They hid on the roof of big church building. They hid their beaks in each other’s neck so close that it would seem like they were trying to count each other’s heart beat. When the smoke cleared they saw fire coming out from a very high building.

The birds were looking at the road. “Oh! Look there,” one bird said another, “How painful! Why are those people snatching the young child from that lady?” The child and his mother were both crying bitterly. “This is the dance of human cruelty, they don’t even think that there was no fault of the new born child. This is all so cruel, and now this innocent baby is being hurt! Why are they doing this?”

The birds had never seen this kind of human cruelty “We were very happy on the hills of Jordan, far from the hatred of human society”

One said to the other “And we used to see the beauty of nature”

“But it was you who said we should leave that place…”

“Yes but at that time I did not know that humans were so cruel” 

“Now we cannot go back to the hills because the winter season has started.”

“But I have not lost my hope yet, I think that all the human beings of the world might not be as cruel as this, just like some of us would be cruel some would be kind.”

“If we fly to the West, we may find a peaceful world there”

After a long discussion the birds agreed to fly west. Both the birds were imagining a dream world where people would love each other, animals, and birds too. With this sweet dream they arrived in Algeria to stay there for a short time and then flew off again. They saw an endless ocean that they had not seen before. They saw very pretty and colourful groups of birds coming from the other side. They were flying over the ocean. “Wow! Water animals are so quiet! If only human live like this” They thought remembering the scene of genocide in Jerusalem. They saw some more fragile birds coming from opposite side, and then their imagination ran wild. “Hopefully one day like these birds, people will be non-violent and there will be no murder and no killing”

Half way across the ocean they heard some noise coming from the ocean. They saw a small ship full of people singing and dancing. Suddenly they all went inside the ship and it sunk. The birds were afraid to see the innocent travelers killed, but after some time the ship appeared again. The birds could not understand this and thought people of west were magicians. They were scared. One of them wanted to return. The other bird said. “No absolutely not. Why dont you say clearly that you are afraid to go there because of the violence.”

“No no I am not afraid. Why do you think so?” The bird asked, but got no reply.

They entered New York via Halifax and Newfoundland. It was evening. The noise of planes was echoing everywhere. The city life was very fast. People were singing and dancing. Life seemed to pass by without tension. The people were very different here in comparison to the east. Brown or blonde, red hair, and red skinned. Oh! and there were machines!  Infact, machines were more in number than the people. There were so many factories there. What did these factories produce? What were those heavy and pointed things? What were they storing them for? They could not understand the use of those things. A large number of men and women were involved in making these things. First they made them and then gathered them in a very tall building. The birds could not understand anything about it. Both the birds were very happy there. They visited almost all the cities of America and spent two more years there.

One day they were flying around the city. Suddenly they heard a big explosion. This explosion was greater than the one in Jerusalem. Both the birds fainted. After a few hours when they came to their senses they found themselves on the roof of a building. They had no courage to go back to their temporary home. A flock of birds were coming from the other side of the roof. They were told that the biggest tower of the city was fired. The same place that was their temporary home. Fire and smoke was still coming out of that building. They were told that planes had crashed into the tower. The city was covered in black smoke. Thousands of people were killed and thousands of them were wounded badly.

The birds were afraid. This is not a peaceful place. They decided to go east of Jerusalem and their long journey began again.

After a long time they arrived in “Chaman” famous for the production of grapes, close to Afghan-Pak border. But they could not escape from the marsh of human hate.  Suddenly they saw some air planes beside them. There were the same brown haired people sitting in the planes as they had seen in the west. They were dropping some pointed and heavy thing on the ground and were changing cities and villages into graveyards. Now they understood the purpose of making and gathering those heavy and pointed things.

“You were saying that these people are peaceful, what do you think about them now?” the bird said snugly.

“Oh!” the other bird replied sadly “I was so foolish I did not know how cruel these human beings are? They were making weapons to destroy themselves, to destroy other human being. They are so crazy.”

“They are not only cruel but the inventors of cruelty.”

They were feeling very tired. They did not find peace in any part of the world.

The first bird said; “Humans are the best creations of God, and they invented these weapons, dangerous to their own lives.”

The other bird replied; “I think that it is their selfish nature that makes them do this, they want to live individually. What do you think?”

“May be…If only they were made like us, they could work together, eat together, and have no boundaries at all. Instead of inventing weapons of mass destructions they could have invented something to help to live a peaceful life.” 

Both the birds started to fly again. This time their destination was India but midway they were hit by unknown bullets.

They were hunted down by human cruelty. Their cry stirred in space…empty space…