Mohan Heard The Crows

Today Mohan rose early morning. The sun still didn’t come up above the horizon. He looked outside his hut’s door and saw his mother busy with her work. He too has to join her in finishing chores so he came out of his hut and washed his face. Ma smiled at him and said “Your chapatti is in the dish beta” He nodded and ran back into the room to finish his breakfast. Ma came in and said “Hurry up beta, we have to join our duty fast” Both started for their respective work. After his father died in an accident the duo was forced to take up work. His mother now runs the tea stall his father used to run and Mohan helps his mother in the shop. There is a big banyan tree behind the shop where a lot of birds of different species live. Mohan sometimes climbs up the tree to look into the birds’ nest. His mother doesn’t allow him to catch baby birds but his wish is to keep a bird as his pet. Today after they reached the shop Mohan’s mother got busy as usual with her work but he looked at the tree listening to the birds’ whistle. The birds are chirping sweetly and to his surprise, Mohan found he could understand even the conversation between the birds. How is this possible, he thought? Then he remembered Mithu’s words.

Mohan had a wish to keep a bird as a pet. So he tried and caught a baby parrot one evening which had fallen on the ground behind the tree. He took it home and fed it. The parrot was very weak at first but continuous caring and feeding made it strong and healthy. Mohan named it Mithu matching the initial letter with his. He even tried to teach it some words, its name, his name, etc.   

Then one early morning Mohan dreamt something weird. Mithu called him and said “Mohan, first I thank you for all you have done for me. Now I wish to ask something from you. It is my freedom. Don’t worry. I’ll bless you with some unique gift. You will be able to understand the bird’s language “ Mohan agreed and opened the cage door and Mithu went away. And now with that boon, Mohan heard the discussion of crows. They were discussing the owl sitting on the bare tree a little away from this tree.

The owl was sitting on the branch of a bare tree heavy-eyed feeling tired. Its exhausting feature in the early morning hour proved its forceful and energetic night adventure. And now it was so lethargic that it didn’t even fly back to its home, the hole in the bark of coconut tree. It was sleeping when something happened.

Its early morning and the birds are up and getting ready to leave their nest. Most were singing as they were thanking the almighty for blessing them with a new day. Now they will go in search of food both for themselves and young ones left back in the nest. The crow too woke up and spread its wings as if trying to shoo away the remaining drowsiness from its body. And then it saw an unusual thing. The owl was sitting on the bare tree sleeping sound. Why is it here, the crow thought. He became quite furious. He didn’t like the owl. It never comes out in board daylight so the crow did not find the owl a familiar one which it always finds near and far around it at day. Finding a strange thing it cawed loudly to call its friends. The other crows joined it immediately when they could understand that something is different today. The murder of crows sat on different branches and asked “What happened?”

The first crow said “Just look at that bird sitting over there” and it pointed at the bare tree. All of them looked at it for a long time. One of them said “Hey it’s an owl. But why is it around in daylight. It is a nocturnal bird”

The other said “Come, let’s ask it” and they all flew towards that bare tree. All of them sat on the other branches leaving the one where the owl was sitting. Then the crow said, “Hey you, from where did you come?”

The owl’s drowsiness broke off. It looked around to find the murder of crows sitting on different branches. But it couldn’t keep its eyes open for a long time; sunlight was hurting its eyes. So it closed its eyes again. The crow felt this insulting that the owl didn’t answer the question. It knew the other crows will laugh at it now so it went very near the owl and cawed out very loudly. The owl was annoyed at the crow’s behaviour so it opened its eyes for a second then said: “What’s the reason for your rough behaviour?”

The crow said “You are ignoring my question”

“No, I didn’t. I stay in the hole of that faraway coconut tree”

“Then why are you here now?”

“Last night I came out to find my dinner but it got late to find sufficient food to eat”

“Why, what do you eat?”

“Rats”

“So aren’t rats available now?”

“No, not enough. These high risers didn’t leave space for rats to live”

“Oh, that’s unfortunate! But why have you closed your eyes? Don’t you like to look at us, the crows?”

“No the sunlight is hurting my eyes and so I’m forced to keep them shut”

“Oh. Ok. Goodbye. Take rest”

The crows returned to the banyan tree and discussed the crisis of food that owl faced.

Mohan heard the discussion and thought we humans are responsible for this imbalance in nature so we should do something to overcome it.