My mom's companion

Today as I watched "The Big Year", a wonderful movie about "birding", I thought about our intimate relationship with crows while growing up in India. The caw was probably the first sound I heard outside the nursing home window as I wheezed my first breath. The crow then
bore witness to all the important events in my life, curious and present and oddly comforting as the only constant through all the changes brought on by us changing cities, schools and just coming of age. Even now through all the radical transformation that economic growth has brought about in India you can count on the crow to trigger warm, fuzzy nostalgia. On a
recent trip home, I watched with delight this wonderful bond between my mom and a
crow that caws sitting on her window sill. It is funny how they communicate, with him
responding to her call, sitting for hours on her sill cawing while she shuffles around in her large and airy kitchen. He even expresses disapproval of some of the food she sets in his bowl by picking it up with his beak and placing it inside the sill! He is there beside her through her lows and highs, more than her children. I am convinced this crow that loves my mom's cooking is my Dad from the nether world, true to my Brahmanic belief that crows are the manifestation
of our ancestors. I had so many folks respond to my post on my mother and this crow with similar stories about their moms who lived alone, with these crows as companions and eating buddies through their lonely coffees or meals. The simplicity of this bond of mutual benefit made me feel warm all over.