Red Feet 

This morning, on the way to the bus stop, I saw a pigeon.

That’s not the story. I see pigeons every day. They peck at the sidewalk like they’re searching for secrets, like they’re on a tiny mission with no clear objective. No one notices them, really. Not unless they fly too close or poop on a windshield.

But today, I noticed something.

Its feet.

They were red. Bright, unapologetic, 'walked through a bottle of hot sauce' red. Just standing there like, Yeah, what about it?  

And for some reason, my brain absolutely glitched. 

like you know when your brain just totally short-circuits, yea?

Similar to when someone’s driving and you’re asked, "Is it a right or a left?" and your brain just... disconnects. You start waving your hand vaguely and say, “This way,” because suddenly left and right have no meaning.

Or like when you walk into a room with purpose, but the moment you step in, you forget why you're there, so you just stand in the middle, confused, like a Wi-Fi signal stuck on the first bar. 

You know that feeling, right? Like your brain unplugs itself and reboots mid-sentence.

Yeah. That kind of glitch. All because of some pigeon feet.

Have pigeon feet always been red? I couldn’t remember. I couldn’t unsee it. I stared like I had just discovered something the world was trying to keep a secret. 

And then I started thinking. 'Like, do chickens have red feet too? No, right? They have yellow feet. Wait, are they orange? And what about other birds? Peacocks, what color are their feet? Wait. Seriously. What color feet do peacocks have?
Parrots? pinkish? Why can’t I remember this?
Oh wait, wait, I literally have a picture with a hawk on my arm. I’ve seen freaking hawk feet up close. Weren’t they… brown? No. Not brown. Maybe? '

Why did I think I knew all this? And why was I suddenly unsure of everything?

I got on the bus, still thinking about it. The red feet thing had cracked something open in my brain.

Because what else had I stopped noticing?
What else had I decided wasn’t worth looking at?
Because I’m too consumed with the things I think I should be bothered about? 

When I got home, I asked my sister without context, “Hey, what color are pigeon feet?”

She looked up from her phone like I’ve gone crazy.

“Uh... peach? Or black? Maybe gray? Or ivory?”

"Ivory? What goddamn pigeon has ivory feet!?"

That’s when it hit me.

We go through life acting like we know the world. Like it’s predictable. Like we’ve seen it all before. But we haven’t. We’ve just stopped paying attention.

We’ve trained our brains to blur out the details. To scroll past the everyday. But the everyday is where life actually lives.

Those details, they matter. They’re the texture of the world. The hidden magic. The gentle signs that life is happening right here, even when we’re not paying attention.

So yeah. Maybe it’s silly to lose my mind over red pigeon feet. But maybe it’s not.

Maybe it’s a reminder.

That even the most normal things, especially, the most normal things, deserve to be seen.

So yeah, maybe it’s weird to be obsessed with pigeon feet.

But maybe it’s weirder that we don’t notice them at all.

P.S. It was never really about red pigeon feet. Or feet at all. 

:-) 

- Monisha Vyas 

Lemme know what'd u think of this one, did the veins in ur brain just tangle for a minute? XD