Caw-caw-caw

Akanksha's snippet on 'Single character language' fascinated me so much that I thought of giving my response in the form of another snippet.

Bharati saw Lord Krishna In kakka.
:Kaakkai siraginile nanda lala
un kariya niram thonruthayye nanda lala'.
Kaa is an esy syllable to pick up for children than 'Thaa".Many children would address their granfather as 'kaa kaa' only and the great smiles in a dark skinned grand dad should be seen to be described.

, A child' s life starts with crow. We see mothers feeding children in open having a cup of dal rice with liberal dose of ghee
extending the rice to the crow first and to the baby next..Many pancha tantra stories revolve around crows-the dull headed crow that stole the vadai,the intelligent modified crow that kept the vadai in its claws and cheated the fox,the crow taking water from a narrow mouthed pot and so on.

Dropping bigger stones into a jar of water is not accidental. They know pretty well that bigger stones can displace morewater soon.


Crow watching is as interesting as sky watching.If you place some food in a small basket at a distance, crow will search for a small wire from somewhere ,bend it into a hook and simply draw the basket.


In our country, crows are seen as representing communistic principles of sharing. But present day crows are opportunists.


when crows have food they want to stash, they always keep an eye out for other crows. If another is watching, the crow will pretend to hide the food in their cache, when in reality, they're stashing it in their chest feathers. Perhaps those poets would not have imagined the thefty character of crows.

In US crow is a rare sight. But in certain areas there are lot of crows. It is strange that crows are able to locate the pattern of traffic lights.They are very sure of red light sign for cross walk,simply cross the road, pick up some nuts or eatables and escape unhurt.This skill ,even human beings have not learnt. Many get involved in accidents because of wrong assessment.


Quick quiz: What day of the week do the garbage men come to your block? What day do they service the next block over? And the one after that? And after that? Some people are interested in knowing these things. This must be a proud moment for Them. But they need not get too excited, because it also means that they just been outscored on a test by a bird: Crows have been known to memorize the patterns of garbage trucks so they can get easy access to the sweet, sweet waste contained within. They know they don't have the strength to open the cans, but also that the sanitation workers who open the cans for them inevitably leave some trash behind, so the crows simply memorize a driver's schedule, then follow the trucks to pick out anything tasty.

Now I understood why the crows exactly arrive at the time we keep rice on the balcony.They know when we switch on the pumpset.They would stand on the outlet pipe and take water as soon as the tank starts overflowing.

Crows can recognise human faces, to a frightening degree.I have read that When seven masked men tried to catch the crows,the crows were able to recognise those 7 men out of hundreds of people wearing masks and went murder crazy on those 7 men only,recognising their eyes.

All that cawing isn't just noise; they're talking to one another, and doing so in a very advanced fashion.


So, not only do they recognize us as individuals, but they have the means to describe us in detail to one another, even across generations. You know what that means: If you've ever meddled with a crow, even if it was just the one time, decades ago, his children might be out there right now, plotting bloody revenge against us.That is why in our mythology crows are treated as our ancestors. Who knows whether they come to bless or curse?

We have heard of dog menace and monkey menace. But there have been crow menace too. But human tricks and baits won't work out.Once some attempt is made to shoot the crows, a few die, of course. But other crows get the hint,spread the news by their caw language and become too precautious. They would start flying at too high a distance that they can't be shot at.

Today we talk of development in advanced communication and boast ourselves becoming global.But it is surprising that the communication network among crows is too intricate to be imagined by human beings.They know the street and address and can easily pass it on to other crows. Now a days when criminal cases get extended to years, lawyers find it extremely difficult to correlate the papers.But see the crow,If anybody does any harm, the crows can take revenge , identify the person with the nere eyesight and can attack him after a few years.

Perhaps The investigation Dept can, with the help of some ornithologists try to train crows in their dept for easy investigation.


Two years back my husband had a visible lump of a small lemon size,on his head.Very much visible because of baldness.It did not disappear with ointments and medications and it was a nuisance. Doctors did not advise surgical removal as he was a brain injury patient.One day as he was performing Surya namaskaram near the well, a crow was found to be just wandering over his head for a few mts and it did not leave him notwith standing so many shoutings and Choo-choo drivings. Next morning at the same time the crow sat over his head and within two seconds it plucked away the lump and flew away.The lump didn't reappear.The black surgeon had done a magic.

Our summer holidays were spent in preparing vadam in the mottai madi( open terrace).Naturally we had to protect vadams from the crows. Notwitstanding our keeping umbrellas and blaclk plastic covers crows invariably hover around to pick up the tasty vadams.
It is entirely a different issue that children would eat the wet tasty vadams and throw the blame on crows.

Shri Cheeniya Sir had given a detailed account of sage kakabhusandi in response to my snippet on Viswaroopam.
Yes, kakkai kuruvi namma jathi thaan.( crows and sparrows belong to our community)

Jayasala 42

 

Kamalji,
Thank you for your satirical response. I enjoyed it.
From my childhood crow has been fascinating me. My mother would jokingly say," you will get a husband as dark as the crow.
There are ever so many stories relating to crows in ancient textbooks.

Jayasala 42

 

Thank you Akanksha for your nice response.Normally if the crow caws it is stated to be an indication of arrival of guests. Normally they won't take young infants out because of some dosham or ill effects.Small infants won't be allowed in the open verandah or muththam. Crows may mistake the shining eyes of the infants as some dark fruit and try to pick them up.

Jayasala 42

 

Dear Surya kala,
If you keep rice in the balcony or compound wall, daily 4 or 5 crows will be waiting nearby.If there is some delay in cooking, they would demand something to be given. Crows take anything from plain rice, Sambar rice or Chapathis which could be taken by beak.An interesting bird to watch.
Actually when my husband had a lump, we were much worried. Any painless lump causes anxiety.Doctor advised us to wear helmet whenever we go out,.
Normally while doing daily sandya vandanam, nobody feels like wearing a cap.Actually my husband was shocked when the lump was casually picked up, as if it was a fruit or nut.No bleeding. There was some oozing of water for a few mts. Later that too stopped. Within a day, with drops of coconut oil, he became alright.Some experiences are stranger than fiction..

Jayasala 42