(Cont.. Part 2) The Prince And The African Grey
Chapter 3 Natasha and her unique pets A young girl named Natasha lived in an ancient city ruins around the Himalayas Mountains. There was not much left of the Ancient City it was further destroyed via powerful Earthquakes. She live with her father whom she loved dearly, her mother had died when she was just 10 years old. Her father was a Yeoman, who lives amongst a small community of farmers. Her only companion was an African Grey Parrot. It was given to her after her mother died, and it helped her overcome her death. She remembers how lonely she was especially when her father would go out with the locals to the forest to chop fire wood. She was really missing her mother a lot and remembers how her only cousin sister had to face death when she fall in love with someone she was not supposed to. Natasha�s cousin sister was in her teens and looked after her especially when Natasha�s mother died. She taught Natasha how to speak and write in English. An Uncle gave her an African Grey. Natasha used to lie in bed and would not pay any attention to what was going on around her, when one day she heard the African Grey laugh, it made her get out of bed for attention. Her Parrot was beginning to talk! He was picking up conversation when they thought he was doing nothing. He was listening. On other days as she lay in bed, the parrot would give a short whistle, for attention, Natasha would get out of bed and go up the parrot and as she walked away he would whistle again as if to call her. So Natasha taught Ganga Ram to Pray. Praying was important for Natasha it gave her a peace of mind and remembered God when ever she could. After a year or so the Parrot was saying some of the lines. It took him 3 to 4 years and soon he was reciting the pray every morning. This encouraged Natasha to keep talking to him. Sometimes he would sit and just stare as if he is not there. Sitting as quite as a mouse and yet often very talkative in the mornings and evenings. Natasha was given a white dog, and named him Spike. He was a Mountain dog and white long haired Alsatian and she found a little terrier and named him Rex. Every time, Spiked barked, the Parrot would say, "Shut up Spike, be quite". Ganga Ram was communicating with the dog. Spike was barking he knew he was referring to the dog to be quite. She was eager to hear the Parrot laugh and talk. It was like as if another human bringing was with her, Most of her days were passed in teaching Ganga Ram, this being mostly in between the house work mostly cooking and looking after her father. She trained Ganga Ram in pulling out the right coloured pencils, in no time he learned all the colours. She knew all Ganga Rams habits. Like a tape recorder he would start to talk none stop in the morning, lunch time and in the evenings and the rest of the time he would just sit there waiting upon to be trained. Natasha thought to herself when he does not talk he could understands to tell me the answers by pointing. Even though they lived in the mountains, she had plenty of toys that were sent to her from Delhi which she used to train and test Ganga Ram with. She got bored with teaching Ganga Ram the colours. There was nothing to get hold of but the fruits. She discovered that he knew the colours via the objects. So she trained him to learn every object in the house. He knew and could point to over150 objects! She wrote to her Aunty who lived in Delhi to send her more children's puzzles. He could master all the puzzles with her. She wanted to play games with Ganga Ram and he responded well. He could now do the children's puzzle. He always pointed to the right answers with his beak. Natasha was so excited she sat in front of Ganga Ram; he would look at her for the next test or game. She sat looking at him and was know wondering what else he could learn and how much he could learn. 'He can do the puzzle, I wonder if he can remember it again the next day'. She tested him again and again making it a game and he enjoyed learning each time waiting patiently for the next test. Natasha knew that he was not as dumb as he looked. She was becoming a good trainer and enjoyed every minute of it. None of her training was done with treats it just naturally came through some knowledge of how he responded to her teaching. He had mastered 104 objects in the house, and knew how to do the picture puzzles. She tested him on letters and the response was excellent. With some advance training Ganga Ram was able to point to the written answers to her asked questions. He is just 8 years old and is able to do so much. Natasha�s advance training had reached to the stage where he was able to answer questions by pointing to the right answers. She had found the key into getting him to know how his brain works. He had mastered the Indian Alphabet, the English Alphabet and knew numbers from 1 to 100. She also taught him to point to the right cards for answers to her question for answer to Adding and times tables. He knew how to spell his name too and he could also spell mum and dad and cat too! Further Advance Training had got Ganga Ram to answer pointing to written words and sentences to the questions asked. And further still he was able to describe photos and picture for her. The training took years and years of hard work. Natasha was no longer lying in bed depressed she was over the moon with Ganga Ram. She was often left in the house on her own, whilst her father had to go to the forest to chop wood. She had to do the cooking and keep the house clean and in between the daily route she made time for her unique special pet. As Natasha went about doing the housework, Ganga Ram would give a short whistle, and call Natasha, and than when she slowly walked away he would give the same short whistle to call her again. This was like a fun game to them. She would place some photos in front of Ganga Ram, and ask him to give her Spike and he would point to Spikes photo. He knew her dad via his photo too, and of a little boy who lived nearby. The photo was of a little boy wearing blue trouser and holding flowers. She tested him with this photo. When placing a photo of her fathers next to it, she asked Ganga Ram to give her the photo with the colour blue and he pointed to the boy�s photo. Than she asked again to give her the boy holding flowers again he knew he pointed to the boy's photo. To finish of the test, she asked him to give her dad, and he pointed to her dad's photo. Her pet dog Rex ran away and Natasha could not find it. She looked everywhere but he did not return. She sat down in front of her Ganga Ram. She wrote some answers on three pieces of paper. On each paper she wrote:- Paper l He has ran away Paper 2 - Yes Paper 3 - Rex come home l miss you. She placed them in front of Ganga Ram and asked the following question "Where is Rex"? Ganga Ram pointed to the piece of paper saying "He ran away". Than she asked another question, "Do your miss him", and he pointed to written word, "Yes". "A message you want to give Rex?" To that he pointed to the written sentence saying, "Rex come home, I miss you". He was able to answer to quite a lot of questions such as, "What do you think of me? and he would point to the written answers say 'I Love you" and she would ask another question "What kind of a bird are you?" and he would point to the written answers saying "African Grey" Every day was fun teaching him and learning and knowing all his abilities. He was able to tell her which person in her little village lived at which address. Ganga Ram was storing data. He was working like a computer. He knew the telephone numbers of people. She taught him to know the capital of over 30 Countries! He knew them by heart even though she herself had to keep looking for the answers! Her father never had the time to spend with Natasha; he did not know what Ganga Ram was capable of doing. One morning as Natasha was cleaning out Ganga Ram's cage he flew out of the window and disappeared into the forest. She searched and searched but there was no sighting of him. Even Spike could not find him. Now she had lost two pets. They were so important to her now she had no one to communicate with. To be cont/...
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