Pigeon Rescue

Redhill Hawker had a stall that sells only fried tau kwa(beancurd). I remember my father bringing me there for snacks in the afternoon. Amazingly, the stall is still around. One tau kwa now cost 80 centts instead of 30 cents. The chilli is still the same tangy taste. It is nostalgic.

After our meal, we walk around the wet market just to explore a little more of old memories. A mother with two toddlers was feeding pigeons. B3 was clamouring to feed the pigeons and the mother was very nice. She offer some mung beans(green beans) for B3. She also teach him how to feed them so that they will eat from his hands. She noticed one pigeon had its legs tied up and was crippled. She tried to catch it but it flew away and disappeared for some time. She finished her feed and decide to go.

B3 was insistent that I buy some feed for him to feed the pigeons. I thought it is the touristy thing to do. So I bought one dollar worth of mung beans. The pigeons flocks in very quickly once they see food on the floor. This time we managed to catch the injured bird. We borrowed a scissor from the store owner and proceed to cut our the string. It was more challenging than we anticipated. The legs were not only tied together, the strings were all entangled in the toes and had cut in very deep. The blood flow was cut off and one of the toes has turned black. We spent more than half an hour to free the pigeon from the raffia string. Once we managed to cut up all the strings, the legs and toes turn purple and warm as the blood started to flow again. It was a fantastic feeling to rescue an injured bird. I feel that we have acquired good karma even though we have no idea if it was recover or survive.