The F word.

"Grandpa, what's a zoo?" I asked. I was just five and had just started schooling." It's a place where there are animals and birds.." said grandpa. "Oh that must be wonderful then! " Fresh green grass, elephants drinking water from crystal clear blue ponds, beautiful birds flying all around, lions and tigers sitting like kings is all what came to my mind. "Let's go to a zoo! " I said with a lot of excitement. Grandpa smiled and said "As you wish my little naturelover!" We took our tickets and entered the zoo.The first thing that I saw was litter. Litter all around the place. We walked further. There were bars. I had seen them in Jails in movies. I was confused. Was I in the zoo or some jail? As we went closer, grandpa took me in his hands. There were birds flying. I had never seen those birds before. Maybe they were in my ABCD book. They were beautiful. I didn't know their name. Suddenly I got a smell of something odd. I couldn't take that smell. We moved further. But there was a question in my mind. How do those birds take in that smell? How do they live in it? There was an elephant, again behind bars. He was drinking. But it wasn't a pond with crystal clear water as expected. It seemed more of a gutter. We moved further.Everyone were gathered. Perhaps the most best place in the zoo was here, I thought. My grandpa took me over his shoulder so that I could see the animal. There was a lion there. He wasn't sitting like a king. Maybe he was restless. He looked old.Food was kept besides him, perhaps stale. But he wasn't gonna eat it.
We then went to a canteen and bought a candy bar ice cream. There were benches kept there. We sat there.
"I don't want to hear that F word again!"  said a lady to her son sitting besides us.
Now I am a boy who asks a lot of questions. So I asked my grandpa, " What is the F word?"
And as any normal person would be speechless, he too didn't know what to say.
But then suddenly he said" Freedom. The F word is freedom."
"Freedom?" I asked.
He said " Freedom is when you are free. Free to roam anywhere, free to do any work without any restrictions"
So that means these animals don't have the F word, freedom? ".  "Maybe!" Grandpa said. "Then why was she not  letting him say that word?"  I said. " I don't know. Finish your Ice cream its melting" grandpa said.

We left. And as we were leaving and passing  each cage, I stared into the eyes of the creatures. They all said the same F word. But was that word freedom or some other word?