Sunday started on a rather sad note. Nani and Lakshmi were drying clothes on the balcony when a crow brushed past Nani’s head trying to attack her with its beak. Thanks to the weird squiggly bun that Nani made everyday after her bath, she did not get hurt badly. Heer couldn’t stop laughing when Nani told her about it. It was amusing to her – why would a crow attack her Nani or for that matter anyone. Lakshmi too was having a good laugh at the whole thing until she was the next victim of the nasty crow.
Lakshmi was winnowing grains when the crow came and attacked her the next day, it was her head again and this time she was hurt. They took her to a clinic nearby, where the nurse dressed her wound, and gave her some shots. After Heer saw Lakshmi being injected, the amusement from all of it was gone. The crow was now a serious threat to these women who did not know what they did wrong, or how to deal with it.
It was Lhosar, Tibetan New year and schools had given the day off for celebration. Heer was having her milk standing in the balcony when she saw the crow carrying some bits to the tree opposite their house and realised it was the same crow that had attacked her family. The crow was building its nest. By the time she rushed to the kitchen upstairs to tell Nani, Nani had been attacked twice. Thankfully, the second time was a miss. After Lakshmi’s incident the fear was real. Lakshmi would put a pan on her head every time she went to the terrace and Heer would burst into laughter every time this happened: it had become a complete nuisance for Nani.
After lunch their neighbor Ms Dolkar came over with some sweets to wish them Lhosar. They shared pleasantries and Ms Dolkar gave them Khapses; Heer loved the Khapses Ms Dolkar made. The crow nuisance was now being witnessed by their neighbours and Ms Dolkar asked Nani the reason behind wearing a pan on her head every time she came out to the balcony. She told nani how she and her family had spent the morning laughing over its bizarreness. Despite her own sufferings and worries over the crow, Nani burst into laughter and shared the issue with Ms Dolkar.
Ms Dolkar suggested that they simply avoid the terrace that faces the tree, as a nesting crow would naturally be defensive. It was natural for birds to be protective of their young ones. While Nani felt it was more offense than defense. Heer worried that Mrs Dolkar would soon have a stomach ache with all the laughter. She was also a wise woman who told Nani that it was a small bird and had to do its best to scare the relatively monstrous humans off. Humans must coexist with all beings – a beautiful thought on Lhosar.
The decision was made; they would avoid the terrace as much and use umbrellas if they needed to. In the evening when Lakshmi had gone back to her home, Nani and Heer laughed remembering Mrs Dolkar’s amusement at Lakshmi’s pan helmet. Heer told Nani that she would never forget this day. She told Nani how she thought it was funny that a small crow could scare them off and keep them indoors.
Nani corrected Heer and told her that while it’s true that it’s scary to be attacked by a crow, the decision wasn’t just based on that but rather on what Ms Dolkar had eluded to- coexisting with all beings. That every-time they stepped out they also made the crow uncomfortable, the world didn’t just belong to humans but to every being that lived on it and all humans must respect that and let every being live in peace. Heer thought that was a beautiful thing to live by and decided not to scare the neighbour’s cat, or maybe just lesser than usual.
