My mother, every morning sat at the kitchen window and had her cup of morning tea. Liquor tea, slightly sweet with a buttered toast.  One day a crow came to the window and she snipped off a bit and gave it a piece. The crow gobbled it and flew away. A few days later the crow flew in at the same time and the action was repeated. Thereafter, everyday for many years the ritual continued and the crow and my ma sat at the window in amicable silence munching away.

A while later she was unwell,  woke up late everyday and the morning tea routine was discontinued. A raucous crow came every morning at the same time my ma had had her tea and created a commotion at the window. Shooing it did not help and it would stop after quite a while, fly away and return the next morning again and caw away. A few days later the cook on orders from my ma gave it a slice of bread. The crow snatched the same but returned a short while later and dropped the uneaten morsel at the window sill. At the same time, everyday thereafter the crow returned, cawed, was given a piece of bread and the same was dropped dutifully at our window.

Perplexed, the staff and my ma conferred and decided to toast the bread. It was declined yet again many times. In a eureka moment the toast was buttered and put out on the window sill. It disappeared and wasn’t returned. This continued everyday till the day my mother died. The crow went away and has not come back.

I wonder if it was someone with a spiritual connect, maybe someone she owed food to in her past birth. Karma and its cycle as our religion ordains. The sceptics will say it’s a coincidence. But, I am not too sure!

It sure was a fussy crow!