Birds

by Subhankar Das

There is a saying that the crow is the vehicle of the God of Death. So falling at his feet in supplication, imploring him to eat this morsel of sacrificial food for my dead mother, so that I am allowed to eat. How long can you be on plain air o crow? If you do not like this milk and water have this morsel of buttered rice.

In cities inevitably there are no birds except crows. Crows do not live in forests; they love to stay near human habitation, near the world of humans and not in the non-world.

The dressed meat of the fowl has already gone straight to the kitchen or in the chicken roll. Thus the notion of being the most accepted bird. This meat is cheaper than the fish in the market. Where is the chance for it to fly to your roof top? The pleasure of being accepted.

Though I have seen a peacock in Mathura city that never misses a chance to dance if it gets to eat bread. It is not that it does not dance for the peahens on the sly on roof tops and parapets just like ordinary men full of sexual urges