The Ones That Flew Away From CU s Nest

Noted cartoonist R. K. Laxman once said he gets away from the pressures of cartooning by drawing the crow, which is his favourite bird. "The crow is an intelligent bird and Indian folklore is full of stories of the crow."
His is a sort of old obsession of the crow, mine too,perhaps to a limited extent.




Sitting by the window sill , looking at the lone tree & watching the crows was & is my past time.Near my house ,this tree used to be occupied by a pair.After the beautiful mating season when the time came to build the nest,the pair were very selective in the shape & size of the twigs.The selection of father crow (FC ) was not always perfect,the mother crow( MC )very choosy many a times ,discarded it .The job of building the nest to the critical requirement was always with MC and FC often used to be perched near by & going around the various branches & watching MC doing the intricate job.It was a pleasure to watch the nest being built.
As the days advanced,with eggs in the nest & later after their hatching ,MC became very busy . But FC always around ,hopping from one branch to the other ,perhaps not knowing what to do. Wanting to contribute but not knowing how to !




This was very funny, I used to think. FC could definitely do many things.

The two baby crows ( BC )were growing & the family seemed to be happy & contended. Then one morning ,as I was watching,a gypsy took a shot at the MC & she fell down the tree.It was heart breaking. A million crows from all over assembled & the db was extreme.FC was cawing almost endlessly.Once the gypsy vanished from the scene ,taking along the MC,the FC was still cawing & hopping around the nest not knowing how to take care of the BC,at least till their wings were strong enough.

I was very worried too, since I always knew the FC was an idiot, who never learnt. But strange is nature that FC soon took the role of ARDHA NAAREESHWARA, a perfect blend of a male /female, in this case a father & mother . The BC were growing & FC, for a change ,looked very busy taking care of them.Two other crows landed up to help,perhaps,grandparent crows.




And then one day ,the two BC were bold enough to jump out of the nest & then from the tree. They were learning to fly .FC was watching proudly. The nest was not going to be occupied by BC any longer. They started flying longer distances & perhaps to test the boundaries of a different kind.

FC ,now all alone ,was as usual ,hopping around the branches,looking at the empty nest & not knowing what to do !



TC
CU

My two sons have just recently left the shores of India for their higher studies, one to Rochester,NY other to Aberdeen,Scotland