Although living in a city like Mumbai has its advantages, one of the biggest drawbacks is that you miss the flora and fauna found in abundance in our country side. It is fairly difficult to live in this city and most of the birds and animals have quietly moved away. Only the rough and the tough who can endure have stayed back. One such being is the crow.
I have not found many who love watching the crow. Probably the abundance of crows in the city ensures that there is no fascination for the same.
The crow however is a very useful bird. It sincerely goes about doing the job that has been assigned to it by mother nature. Had it not been for the crow, a city like Mumbai would be twice as dirty.
I too hated the continuous crowing of crows in the vicinity of our house and used to look for solutions to stop the menace. If only a “no-crowing” zone could be declared and the crows start following the order!
My hatred for the bird changed to admiration when I came to know that the crow’s nest is used by the Koel/Cuckoo to lay its eggs. The eggs of both the crow and the cuckoo look alike and the crow takes over the task of hatching the eggs. In fact, it’s the presence of crow’s that brings a cuckoo and its sweet melody to overcrowded places like Mumbai. What a relief!
In India, a crow is revered on occasions like performing the last rites. It is considered inauspicious if the crow does not feed on the offerings. My mother used to say that the departed soul returns as a crow. If the crow accepts the offering, the departed soul is happy. I used to laugh it off asking why does the departed soul come as a crow and not as a peacock? As a young man you always try to deride age old wisdom!
That also changed after I attended one such ritual.
My uncle had expired and I along with my uncle’s son’s had gone to Nashik, to perform his last rites. His younger son had completed his doctorate and evinced interest in taking sanyas. Before his death, my uncle could not convince his son to change his decision.
The priest who performed the last rites started explaining the sholkas (which were in Sanskrit) in English and this kept my interest in the proceedings. At the end of the ritual, it is customary to offer food to the crows. The place where the offerings are kept is frequented by crows and no one dare shoo them away.
When we kept our offering (few balls of cooked rice) on the platform, we were surprised that the crows would not touch it. It would be better to say that the crow’s could not touch it. There were around three crows competing with each other to get to the rice balls. What was more surprising was that offerings by other mourners were lapped up the moment they were kept on the platform.
It was not as if the crows were not trying to eat the stuff. I noticed that the beak of a crow went as far as a few mm from the offering but could not touch the offering.
This went on for around ten minutes. The priest then declared that the soul is not happy and that we could wait for hours if needed, but the crow’s would not touch the food. He went on to explain that a crow is a scavenger and eats everything. However, the departed soul covers the offering and prevents the crow from eating if it needs to convey a message to the family!!!
The priest started inquiring about the reason for the soul’s unhappiness. What is your mother doing? Do you have sisters? Are they married? ….
He concluded that if you know the reason, sprinkle water around the offering and take a vow that you will take care of the problem. We knew the real reason and asked the younger son to do so. To our surprise the crows started pecking on rice balls the moment my cousin turned his back after sprinkling water.
This came as shock to my scientific mind. I was taking part in an age old ritual without understanding the real meaning of the same. My outlook towards these rituals changed and I learnt to respect the significance of these rituals. A crow is a wonderful teacher.
I remember telling my cousin that your father has succeeded in convincing you after death although he could not do so when he was alive. My uncle’s son not only dropped the idea of sanyas but is now happily married with two lovely kids.
I recounted the above incident to one of my colleague’s and he had his own experience about the crow to narrate.
It seems his daughter could not speak. They consulted medical experts but to no avail. Their anxiety turned to despair and they started looking for alternatives. Their search took them to a saint who advised them to feed curd to a crow and then feed the leftover curd to the child. My colleague and his family were shocked by the advice. How could you probably feed a small child something which has been pecked by a crow. A crow is known to be a scavenger and they had even seen crows feasting on dead rats.
Left with no other option, they did feed curd to a crow. The leftover curd was fed to the daughter. To their surprise, within hours, the child started speaking! Believe it or not.
Surely, we have not understood the magic weaved by crows.
