The Crow (that demands biscuits)

S Balakrishnan *

With biscuit in beak

We have a routine visitor – a black crow that demands biscuits! All crows are black, no? Of course there are white (albino) crows but they are very rare indeed. He or she, I can't make out, so I will call it by the third person singular pronoun 'it'. It is a shame that I had to google to know the definition of 'it'. It sits in the window sill and caws repeatedly to draw our attention.

As we approach with broken bits of biscuits kept ready in a small plastic container, it cautiously jumps to the neighbour's wall. As we move away after placing the biscuit bits, it jumps back, picks up one or two pieces in its beak and flies away, probably to feed its chicks. It appears 3-4 times daily demanding crispy biscuits rather than idli, dosai or rice!

'Sorry, we are vegetarians', I told the crow once and it said 'caw, caw' (ok, ok). Earlier, there was another crow visitor that would not caw but patiently and silently sit on the neem branch waiting for our response; it would eat anything offered to it.

The common crow has mythological connection; it is the sacred 'vaahan' (mount) of Lord Saneeswara, one of the Nine Planets, the one who is most revered as he could make or unmake your life. The simple crow finds mention in Tami literature as well, written more than 2000 years ago.

In the legendary Thiru-k-Kural written by Saint-Poet Thiruvalluvar, the crow is mentioned in two couplets; in couplet 481 the poet advises the King thus "Similar to a crow that fights and wins over the owl during daytime when the owl cannot clearly see, the king should attack the enemy at the opportune time."

In couplet 527, Thiruvalluvar advises "The one who shares his goodies with others like the crow, gets all the merits." There was a woman poet of the Sangam era (B.C.) who was known as Kaakkai Paadiniyar because she wrote about crow ('kaakkai') in her 'Kurunthohai' collection of poems; she mentions a belief that still persists among Tamil people that 'if a crow caws in front of one's house, a guest can be expected'.

But those were the times when people welcomed guests; now, if a crow caws near the house, people will shoo it away or even stone it to death! The modern day revolutionary poet Maha Kavi Bharathiyar saw Nandalala (Lord Krishna) in crow's black feather.

Crow in Tamil language is appropriately called 'kaakham' or colloquically 'kaa-k-kai' or kaa-k-kaa, because it 'kaas' (caws) which sound is called 'karaithal'. The Tamil name 'kaakham' is quite similar to the Sanskrit 'kakah'. In Hindi it is 'kauva' which immediately connects me to the popular song "jhoot bole kauwa kaate" (If you lie the crow pecks you) from the 1973 hit Hindi film Bobby. By the way, I never saw this movie.

Writing about the crow I remember the famous quip of C.N. Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, during the anti-Hindi agitation – 'if Hindi should be the official language because it is spoken by a majority, then the common crow, and not the peacock, should be the national bird.' Though not declared our national bird, yet the crow has been immortalized by the famous cartoonist R.K. Laxman in his sketches; he loved it for its intelligence.

His wife, Kamala, jokingly remarked, 'he loves crows more than me'. As the crows' intelligence equals that of apes, scientists call the crows as 'feathered primates'. The crows can think, make & use tools and also have good memory power.

But I doubt its intelligence quotient, because it is not able to differentiate its own eggs from that of cuckoo that cunningly lays its eggs in crow's nest. The 'stupid' crow also hatches them and rears the chicks until they grow up and fly away cooing, not cawing, making a fool of the crow!

This pathetic situation is strikingly described thus in Sanskrit: kakah krshnah, pikah krshnah, ko bedhah pikakakayoho vasanta kale, samprapta kakah kakah, pikah pikah, meaning 'Both crow and cuckoo are black, but the difference comes out in spring (when the cuckoo coos).

Never mind, the crow is known for unity & sharing and that is why we are advised to follow the crow's sharing & caring qualities. There is this popular song 'kaa kaa kaa' from the 1952 Tamil film Parasakthi that lists the good qualities of the crows. As if to honour the crow, the crowbar tool is named so since the year 1400, as it resembles the crow's feet/beak.

Well, here is a legend about crow and River Cauvery – Saint Agasthiyar had captured River Cauvery within his kamandal as she rebuked him for his short stature. Lord Ganesh approached in the form of a crow and tilted the kamandal to enable Cauvery to flow again in response to prayers by everyone and as asked by Lord Shiva. Remember, Cauvery flows because of the crow!

The crow's scavenging nature has also given a bad name to it; as the crow ate the corpses during wars and plague, it was feared as an agent of death and as an element of devil which is used to the hilt in horror movies. Perhaps this fear led to the naming of the stuffed figure installed in fields to scare away birds as 'scare crow'. It is indeed scary to know that a group of crows is called 'MURDER'! Beware! But its adaptive nature to the changing scenario is to be appreciated; unlike the sparrows, the crows thrive even in metro cities.

The crow becomes a revered bird and in demand during new moon days (amavasya), remembrance days and festivals, when it is mandatory to offer food to the crow which is considered as 'pithru' (forefathers). It is on these days that the crow also doesn't respond that easily despite our repeated cawing and pleading to accept the offering!

I will be dying of hunger but it will seem as if all the crows have disappeared from this world on these days! Talking of food, there were incidents of roadside eateries duping customers with kaa-k-kaai (crow) curry instead of chicken curry. Ugh!

An albino crow is a rare find, one in 10,000. And, even though the crow's chick is black, it is a golden chick for the mother crow, so goes a Tamil saying. True, indeed, for every mother. If you have watched a crow taking a bath, you will understand why a very quick bath by a person is sarcastically called 'kaa-k-kaa kuliyal' / crow's bath.

Have you ever watched Crows' Parliament? They sit in a line on high-rise buildings/ water tanks and discuss international issues! No ruckus, like in our parliament or state assemblies. Everyone is given an opportunity to caw their opinion.

Two folk tales about the crow are quite popular – The first one is about a crow stealing a vadai (or any edible item) in its beak and sitting on a tree when a fox tries to cajole it to sing. The crow opens its beak to sing and the vadai falls down, to be eaten by the fox.

However, the modern version shows the crow as a clever one, where it holds the vadai in its feet and sings. The fox is fooled here. The second is about a thirsty crow putting pebbles into a jar so that the water level rises for it to drink; the modern crow just picks up a straw and coolly drinks the water.

Oh, well, I was really worried what to write about this week, when this crow visitor gave me a hint. Should I treat her/him with a piece of cake? But then the consequence could be that it would always demand only a piece of cake with icing on the top!