Anita Pujari

An avian news report on the front page of my newspaper stirred a slumbering Aesop's fable to the top of my mind. In the fable, a thirsty crow comes upon a pitcher with water at the bottom, beyond the reach of its beak. After failing to push over the pitcher, it drops in pebbles, one by one, until the water rises to the top of the pitcher, allowing the crow to drink.

You have guessed right! The story of "The Thirsty Crow". I will not go in to the moral of the story as we've all  wised up to the wise crow in childhood. I am going to ask for your vote. I am campaigning for the Mumbai crow in the soon to be held 7th Mumbai Bird race where the "Bird of Mumbai" will be chosen based on the votes you give to the contenders. The crow, the lesser flamingo, the coppersmith barbet and the magpie robin are vying for your precious vote. The criteria are simple. "The bird should be found in abundance; the city should have been the bird's home for a well-stretched period of time and the bird should have adopted itself to the changing environmental conditions." You see why your vote must decisively go to the Mumbai crow?

Adopting itself to the changing environmental conditions has as much to do with the adapting crow as it has been for those who had to turn Bombaiya to Mumbaikar. The thirsty crow has gone from pitcher to pit and survived. Mumbaikars are having to do without water most of the year under some pretext or the other and in those months that taps don't run dry what runs through is yellow and putrid. Mumbaikar survives too. Vote for survival. Vote for the Mumbai crow!

Last Sunday I was talking to this crow perched on my window sill. Actually I was trying to get the fellow to appreciate my distress. I get only one afternoon siesta opportunity a week and why, oh why did this crow have to break in to it with incessant caw-cawing week after week with unfailing regularity. His answer had me moved to tears. A few years ago this crow happened to have sampled my special Sunday lunch cooked for the family and was smitten. He had followed me through 2 house shifts to my current abode and made sure that he was on the kitchen window every Sunday at noon waiting his opportunity to smartly hop in and out with a beakful of the lunch I lovingly cook. Of late he was unable to reach by noon and most Sundays he settled for the remnants or none at all because he was so late. What was a 30 minute crow flight from Goregaon where he resides to Trombay where I reside a few years back was now a gruelling 90 to 100 minute commute, he said. Earlier he could rest awhile on the lush Powai hills enroute  but now the hills were gone and he had to fly non-stop. He wasn't giving up. Vote for the never say die spirit. Vote for the Mumbai crow!!

Misty eyed but not one to be cawed down I appealed that he find a good cook in the vicinity of his residence but leave my window sill. He was aghast with this appeal and called in all the other crows on the other window sills of my 20 floor building to protest. Through the angry flapping and caw-cawing I was questioned - where are the window sills any more, except for old residences like mine. The open spaces, the bungalows and cottages with huge windows and broad ledges were a thing of the past. Now Mumbai was all vertical, a concrete jungle with window less airconditioned cubby holes. The so called eco-friendly, glass facade green structures were death traps for the crows. Injuries were on the rise since they flew into glass at every turn. Vets were too busy with manicured poodles and chihuahuas and their ilk so even medical care was hard to come by. Vote for resilience. Vote for the Mumbai crow!!!

I was reminded today of the big banyan tree next to my house and all that it symbolised for me as a child. Enormity, strength, shade, a big embrace and a big house for all the crows that would fly in to its boughs as dusk gathered. I remembered the comfort of the diminishing chatter and caw-caws as they settled in for the night and the awakening chatter at the break of dawn. Vote for new beginnings. Vote for the Mumbai crow!!!

Veteran cartoonist R K Laxman is known to hold the crow in high esteem as an intelligent bird. He says he would get away from the pressures of cartooning by drawing the crow, which is his favourite bird. I am sure he would vote for the crow as the "Bird of Mumbai". Won't you?

For those of you who may not have believed that such a poll is scheduled to take place coming Sunday, here is the link to the news report.