Saturday, June 11, 2016

Who is cleverer? Crow or Cuckoo?

Who is cleverer? Crow or Cuckoo?

All students in the world pass through the Moral Story of "The thirsty Crow", in Std. 1st. You all know too.

One hot day, a thirsty crow flew all over the fields looking for water. For a long time, he could not find any. He felt very weak, almost lost all hope. Suddenly, he saw a water jug below the tree. The crow tried to push his head into the jug. Sadly, he found that the neck of the jug was too narrow. Then he tried to push the jug to tilt for the water to flow out but the jug was too heavy. The crow thought hard for a while. Then looking around it, he saw some pebbles. he suddenly had a good idea. he started picking up the pebbles one by one, dropping each into the jug. As more and more pebbles filled the jug, the water level kept rising. Soon it was high enough for the crow to drink. His plan had worked! (Moral: Think and work hard, you may find solution of any problem)

The Crow, therefore, identified as the clever crow in the minds of the children all over the world. Crow is there in Sanskrit Subhashit. It advocates not to judge the person through his/her outwardly appearances. 

काकः कृष्ण: पिको कृष्ण: को भेदो काक पिकयोः
वसन्त समये प्राप्ते काकः काकः पिकः पिकःII
(Kaka: krushna: pika: krushna:, Ko bheda: pikakakayo:; Vasantha kale samprapte
Kaka: kaka: pika: pika:,) (The crow is black and the cuckoo is black. What difference, then between cuckoo and crow? When the spring(season) sets in, We know (distinguish) crow is crow and cuckoo is cuckoo (the way they sound, harsh/pleasing).

But do you know, in real life who is cleverer between the Crow and the Cuckoo? The Cuckoo doesn't make a nest of its own. The female lays her eggs in the nest of crow. She goes to the nest of the crow, drop two eggs of the crow and lay her eggs replacing those two. Unaware of the act of the Cuckoo, the crow couple bring up the young of cuckoo with their own.

Cuckoo wins with her pleasing sound and grow with her smart act of cheating the crow. When we are child, we learn the story of the thirsty crow with a moral to work hard. But when we grow older and face the world, we are advised to follow cuckoo. Drop your monkeys on others shoulders and keep your voice sweet to please the audience. Clever Crows are victimised by the Smart Cuckoos.

The study suggests that crows get benefited of having cuckoo chicks in the nest as it produces more crow chicks than those without. When disturbed, the cuckoo chicks emit copious amount of a sticky, smelly substance, that deters the predators from the nest. Excretion acts as a powerful defence mechanism, save both. Crow tolerate cuckoo because their young get benefited.

What is your choice? Crow or Cuckoo? Cleverer or Smarter? Or SOS? Lol.

Punamchand 
11 June 2016

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