The One Legged Royal Crow

It was just another mundane day where you would feel blessed if you could shit freely without having to call god for helping relieve yourself. I wokeup, shit, brushed got ready and Kickstarted the boxer bike and set off for work.

True to my penny pinching nature I stopped at the small roadside idly shop to have my breakfast. For sometimes now this had been routine for me and my colleagues to eat in this idly shop. Usually we were the first customers to break into idly Patti's shop and today was no exception.

Idly Patti like all the Pattis in the stories had a soft corner for crows. It was idly Pattis custom to keep a few idly outside first before serving us. On that day too she kept idly with chutney (as if the crows would not pay her tips if she missed chutney) on the small slab outside her thatched roof shop.

And the heroes of this incident, the crows started to flock to eat the idlis. Had the crows started to caw and fight around idly it would have been another normal day. But crows did something that intrigued me. All except one Crow were silently standing below the slab where idly was kept. Crows being silent and not bickering over food is rare and unbelievable sight.

I thought maybe this is the ROYAL CROW that we have heard in fairy tales. But you see crows are socialist and they don't have Kings and Queens. They share their food with each other. But why all the other crows were silent when one Crow was feasting on the idly with katti chutney. The answer came in the next few minutes.

That one Royal Crow after eating starts to hop. Then I noticed that Royal Crow after all had one leg only. It struggled to take flight. But eventually it flew and with it my respect for crows soared sky high. Only after that one legged Crow left all other crows started to caw and fight for idly.

Crows were not just socialist in sharing their food. They are pioneers of affirmative action. Crows had shattered my notion of survival of fittest and proved it is survival of the compassionate that is necessary. And they did teach me this greatest lesson in silence. They don't have any constitution to enforce this practise.

But in India we Indians blame , insult and pass casteist slurs against SC/ST for getting reserved seats in education and jobs.

Indians learn from these Crows. When someone like ROHIT VEMULA tied with stones and dropped in the casteist ocean is trying to uplift himself through education give him some space so that he too could spread his wings despite his legs being cut off by caste this society has imposed on him.

Jai Bhim.