A Rendezvous

A single crow just strolled past me, walking casually, sometimes just hopping along.

Continuous observation led me to the conclusion that extremely obnoxious and dirty things attract it. My conclusion got a stamp of approval from Nature, as it just satisfied itself in the garbage can. It walked past, occasionally staring at my companions, and me with quick movements of its neck tilted automatically at a haughty angle. It probably wondered at how it might never be able to read the manner in which we, the Humans, functioned. Just like I, who lived in a contemporary age of crows, seemed to know a lot about their lot yet I could not decipher how the bird may think, what its feelings could be and how much do these feelings have affinity to human emotions. Was the crow too, thinking about me this way? I think not!

As far as observations and studies show, crows scarcely have a philosophical bent of mind. Moreover it seemed to be watching me with extremely practical eyes. Ever noticed a crow’s eyes? It seems like a white spot in a dark velvet background-like the rays of the sun percolating through a small hole on the cover of a dinghy well, and falling on its eerie waters below!! I wonder what the crow might feel if it knew I had called its eyes a dark, stinking, stuffy well. (Well..to my defence I might say that I had compared thy eyes to infinity-a bottomless, unfathomable wonder). Their eyes might be precious to them- “A Crow’s Eyes!”

The crow was busy, it peeked satisfactorily inside the garbage, took out what seemed like a deplorable tattered mass of organic origin. It was pleased to peck and nibble at the remains. It then hopped along to the water filter from where it hungrily sucked out a few drops of water and quenched its thirst. But so far the crow had hardly given any signs of being so thirsty. In fact crows never display any sort of emotion at all. That is why it is safe and trouble free to draw the conclusion that a crow’s mind is devoid of higher thoughts and feelings. It just seems the perfect reason as to why their life is so less complicated. The entire spectrum of their lives seems to encompass screaming at an unbearable pitch, creating a cacophony anytime they are spotted. (Except when they are spotted under broken sun shades in warm summer afternoons.)

However, there are some conclusive or rather compelling facts regarding crows. One, for instance, is that they know how to count (upto 4 **). I wonder if all crows are biologically blessed with this instinct to count or are the specially trained ones master of this special ability. If all crows knew how to count, then this particular crow too might have observed that there were four taps in the filter which it used. Crows are, however, by nature, very stubborn and are instilled with or born with an irritating sense of inquisitiveness in them. Which bring me to the second point. It must be due to heredity for the parent of the crows too, must have been extremely inquisitive themselves. Entering places where they were not supposed to and tasting things not meant for them. This would lead to their co-species to shower endless curses on them. I guess they are like that-born immune to insult.

Since we are on the topic of their emotion and heart, it may be brought to light that the crow does have a heart, which metaphorically speaking can be touched, when one from their very own clan seems to be in virtual danger. They start their unsynchronized symphony, till they ward off all trace of prevailing danger. I personally have also been lucky enough to be witness to the following vastly educational experience. It so happens that I reside in a building overlooking a pond. Here dwell several geese. On one winter afternoon one of the birds was fatally injured and after trudging up to the bank, was incapable of any further movement. Right at this precarious moment it was spotted by a stray dog, which needless to say approached the poor bird with cheetah like stealth (for obvious purposes). Suddenly a couple of our dark angels appeared and placed themselves like sentry on either side of the dying bird shooing away any form of danger if it approached the bird. This continued till a gentleman came and rescued the goose. The crows seemed to have perceived that there was no threat from this approach and flew off as the man carried the goose away, cradling it in his arms. This sure makes for some brownie points towards the crows character. Worthy of respect, one must admit.

Coming back to my object of interest, The Crow, for a while sat on the roof in front gazing at me with amazing interest. Scarcely did he know that all this time he was being acutely observed and was the centre of thoughts in a human mind. What would he have felt if he knew? Well, it probably wouldn’t have bothered him, as it would have me, if I knew that I was on someone’s mind for a while. He would have flown off, anyway. And he did!!

Crows are very busy animals, not in the category of wasps and bees though, but they can be termed as “busybodies” to an irritable extent, though it does not irritate humans who do not have much better occupation than leisurely watching the activities of one. The crow who flew off would meet other crows (for there is no dearth of them around) utter a disgusting greeting and continue his levitation- a black spot in the boundless, limitless sky. But crows are brainless fools and never realize the amount of their freedom for once again it swoops down to a garbage dump, snatches away a dead rat and basically enjoys strolling about in the polluted streets of cities, eventually dying of old age or car accidents. In short, the life of crows, like the one I saw today, is dirty, busy and fruitless. They may spend their entire lives doing something or the other everyday, but they do nothing great or significant, nothing worth remembering even in their own world. Maybe, crows are just made that way, never caring to leave a mark; except for the one or two Messengers from God (as the two) I had the good fortune of observing. Maybe the summary of a crow’s life is “An unplanned wastage of freedom granted”.