Thoughts on a Roosting Crow

One day during my post dinner walk through the campus, I saw a solitary crow roosting on a rather low branch. There was no other crow on that tree or any of the trees nearby. I checked the tree once more to make sure. Yes, there it was – a single crow probably fast asleep in a world of crowish dreams. I found that rather strange for I thought crows generally gather together for night roosts, mostly on the same tree night after night. 

I was reminded of my days in Mercy campus. A small campus comfortably settled little outside the hustle and bustle of Palakkad town. Those of you who have had an opportunity to live in that campus would remember the crows. By around five in the evening they’ll start coming on ones and twos and by six the whole place is drowned in the cacophony. There is a lot of noise, so much of moving around –  fighting for a favourite place, may be for a seat next to a particular lady, sharing notes on how good or bad the day had been, settling family quarrels, the list goes on. By the time the party finally settles down, it’s dark. Then it is all quiet, time to sleep. Come early morning, the crows are up much before any of us in the hostels. Without much ado these early birds depart to different places to catch the proverbial worm. Nobody lingers in the hostel premises. May be experience taught them too that mess food is not really worth it. By evening they are back! Those huge trees in our campus have been favourite roosting sites for generations of crows.

Well, so that is how I thought crows generally behave. Even if they forage alone or in small groups, roosting time was when they believed in strength in numbers. And there was this crow, all alone. Maybe he was a rebel, and did not believe in following the norm. Perhaps the crow believed in staying far from the madding crowd. :P It could have been an old crow that did not feel like it could make to the roosting site that may be far away. There is a possibility of the crow being a social outcast and hence unable to join the others. Did the crow feel lonely? Do crows also have the urge like humans, to be socially acceptable, to do things that are ‘cool’ so that they can stay in a group? Did this crow brave all such temptations and decided to make a statement by staying alone?

The next day when I went for my walk I looked for the crow, it was not there. It is more than a week since I saw my crow, all alone on a low branch. I do not know if it had gone back to its group or if it had chosen a roosting site, all for itself, far away from the prying eyes of nosey research scholars. But every day when I pass that tree, I look up, to check whether my lonely crow is there.

Live and Let Live

I happened to visit this huge temple complex in Mangalore called Kudroli temple. This temple complex, inaugurated by Rajiv Gandhi, has the normal temple structures and additional stuff like a marriage hall, park with fountain etc. After the visiting the main shrine and offering our prayers, we entered the, park.

Now this is a park with a pool, a large number of sculptures and paintings of Gods and Goddesses. There are these really magnificent sculptures of Siva at all corners of the pool and I was told that they have this wonderful display of light and water there on special occasions.

And then there is the park with grass, a smaller pool, rocks, small trees and shrubs etc. There, they have made life-like statues of animals and have tried to recreate the natural settings in which these animals occur. Mostly these are animals with some kind of religious significance like the tiger, lion, snakes, rat, peacock, cow etc. Well, there are a few ‘secular’ ones like the crow, spotted deer, egrets etc. Then I found this very interesting item. They have kept name tags for each of these statues just like they do in a zoo. I found it pretty amusing. Had it been a live peacock or crow, it made sense; but keeping a nameplate near the cement statue of a peacock? I found it funny.

Later on I was thinking about this. I was wondering what made these people do something that looks as silly as this. This was the time when the reports on “0nly 1410 tigers left in India” were beginning to come out. Then I realized with a start that if things go on at today’s pace, this kind of cement statues will be all that we have of all these magnificent species. We will have to make parks full of statues like this replace our zoos.

It is time for us to start doing something about saving our forests and its denizens for the generations to come. If we don’t do something, that too pretty fast, these painted figures will be all that our children, and their children, will have as a proof off all the wonderful creatures that used to inhabit this earth.