Crows Landing (standard:Fan Fiction, 2301 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Nov 23 2010	Views/Reads: 3113/2317	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A story on family of crows on a Neem tree

Crows Landing 

By 

Subba Rao 

This is the story about a crow family that landed on a neem tree
adjacent to Hanuman temple. Hanuman, a trusted devotee, and servant of 
Lord Rama in epic story of Ramayana was half monkey and half human.  
People worship Hanuman in times of crisis for emotional strength. On 
the first day, when Akash, the male crow and his wife Neeli took 
shelter on a neem tree near Hanuman temple, there was a commotion among 
the long-time resident crows of the neem tree. The crows made 
uninviting noises, and few flew pretty close to the new resident couple 
flapping their wings, a sign of hostility towards the new residents. 

“This place is inhospitable, and dangerous to live,” said Neeli, the
wife. 

“ Don't worry, in a few days time they will get used to us, after all we
are new here. Remember when we lived on the tamarind tree in the past, 
we treated the new comers the same way,” Akash reassured his wife. 

“True, but these crows were too boisterous and ugly in their behavior,
after all we didn't intend to take over the entire tree,” the wife 
lamented. 

Dharma, an old crow lives on the top branch of neem tree. When his wife
died years ago in the hands of tribe's man, Dharma continued to live 
alone. The neem tree resident crows respected Dharma for his sound 
advice and calm approach to calamities. 

Once, when city officials cut down a huge branch of the neem tree to
expand the temple below, many crows lost their nests. The angry crows 
flew over the temple in circles making annoying  “crow, crow” sounds. 

Dharma intervened to calm down his fellow birds and advised them to move
to upper branches for safety from annoyed city officials. If not for 
Dharma's advice, many crows could have lost their home for good since 
one official swore to cut down the entire tree to get rid off the 
nuisance from the annoying crows. 

Dharma intervened this time to prevent the harassment of new arrivals to
the neem tree. 

“We were not frightened as much as surprised of the hostile behavior of
the crows on this tree, said Neeli in a soft voice.  We landed on this 
tree as it brought back memories of our old residence, a tamarind tree 
in nearby town but was cut down to make room for a housing project,” 
said Neeli turning her attention to Dharma, a fatherly looking figure. 

.  “Never mind the intolerance of the resident crows, it was a test to
find out how badly you wanted to live on this tree,” Dharma spoke for 
the first time to the new residents. 

Dharma advised the new residents to build their nest on the upper
branches to avoid nuisance from the children that gather in the temple 
yard to play, and adults that cut down the lower branches for twigs to 
brush their teeth. The bitter neem juice in the twig was considered 
having germ-fighting quality and good for teeth and gums. 

Akash and Neeli used small dry twigs from the neem tree to build their
nest in a hurry. When they were hungry, they swallowed soft yellow neem 
fruits for their sweet pulp, spitting out the bitter seeds. 

“Akash, do you think people really eat the neem seeds?” asked Neeli
looking at the people on the ground picking up the neem seeds. 

“People would always find some use in every thing.  Remember those
children, and the adults alike used to fight for tamarind pods.  I am 
glad we left the tamarind tree for good. I am sure, they burnt the 
tamarind tree branches to make coal by this time,” Akash was 
philosophical about people and their ways. 

The nest Akash and Neeli built was awkward like those of many crow


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