#once again mr crow has an absent son's egg

[tomfrogisblue]

today has been a real trip

started with qQuackity wailing and crying about a happy couple as usual

mixed into qTubbo canonically dying, fully committing to the bit

an injection of massive movie night angst, resurfacing Tallulah's abandonment trauma while Sunny grieves Tubbo and Chay falls into depression about his perceived continued inability to protect his loved ones

and now the server is desperately tryna figure out how to obtain an impossible item in order to reanimate Tubbo

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Enjoy The Island!

[gulshanrewariblog]

Mynah 🐦 v/s Mrs. Sudha – by Gulshan Rewari

Images and references courtesy: Google Search

One day Mrs. Ritu Sudha noticed a couple of Mynahs sitting on the air conditioner unit, mounted high on the wall in the verandah, outside her bedroom. She immediately crossed her fingers in delight, expecting some good fortune to descend upon her as those were her favorite birds. Ever since her childhood, she had strongly believed the superstition, ‘One for sorrow, two for joy,’ and undoubtedly counted upon it. But as she saw littering of straws and leaves around the place, almost immediately her feelings turned negative and she realize the obvious. She went to investigate the unwanted visitors, fluttering about all over the verandah, like they were making an annual inspection usually required at the onset of summer season in northern India for the AC service. On sustained observation, Ritu’s worst fears came alive as she discovered that they were in the process of building a nest on the unit. But to be absolutely sure, she mounted on a wooden stool and stretched high on her toes and saw the birds, particularly the one smaller in size and probably a female, carefully weaving a nest of twigs and straws, while the other was feeding it with the constant supply of raw material. Struggling on her toes, she couldn’t hold on for long and quickly dismounted to the ground with a thud as her feet entangled in the nightie she was in. She cursed under her breath and hurried inside, looking for something to scare the birds away, vowing to teach a lesson they will remember for life.

Myna or Mynah, as it is commonly called in India is an omnivorous bird with strong territorial instinct that has adapted extremely well to the urban environments. It is one of the most invasive birds that had just about met her match in the equally stubborn Ritu, who was now looking at ways to dismantle their unfinished abode. After weighing in countless options, she returned with a long handled broom, and placed it over the unit to scare the birds that kept coming back repeatedly like they were going to attack. After some lull in the activity, when she thought to have managed to convey the message across, the bird, together with her partner, kept moving the broom little by little until it fell down. Frustrated Ritu sought other remedies while barging in and out of the verandah and muttering under her breath. Witnessing something amiss, tall and lanky, Mr. Ravi Sudha couldn’t resist his curiosity to inquire, and got instantly sucked into the matter. Now both of them were exploring ways to get out of the situation that had presented itself that morning. Ravi’s morning tea was dependent upon finding a quick fix to the problem at hand.

But nevertheless he tried to reason with his wife, ‘I thought this was your favorite bird.’

‘Not if it is building a nest and making a mess of my verandah,’ she snorted back.

‘But she isn’t alone, her partner is with her and you would see them every day,’ he reasoned.

‘No way can I have them create a nuisance at my place,’ she said with finality, gesturing with her hand to dissuade her husband from making any more argument for it. Mr. Sudha understood that this pair of birds would have to breed elsewhere and pretended to help her in whatever she was doing.

Originally, a nursery rhyme about the number of magpies seen, tells if one will have bad or good luck. As the superstition goes;

One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret, Never to be told. Eight for a wish, Nine for a kiss, Ten for a bird, you must not miss Eleven is worse Twelve for a dastardly curse.

The whole poem, barring first couple of lines, was of no consequence to Ritu, who since her childhood was a firm believer of sunshine horoscopes, numerology and fortune teller tales and their remedies. If she had heard that bird’s nest in the house was inauspicious then so be it and no one could challenge or change her beliefs. After few of Ravi’s suggestion were rubbished and shown way to the dustbin, she called up her mother and dissected the whole issue with her in detail. Putting to use her mother’s advice she got on the stool once again and sprinkled the unit with turmeric powder, red pepper and some other herbs and waited behind the pillar. Ravi, getting hopeful for a cup of tea which was a necessity with his morning paper, requested politely that he would keep vigil while she prepared the tea inside, but Ritu was having none of it that morning. ‘Can’t you wait, don’t you see how important this work is?’ she shouted, while peeking from behind the pillar to see if her trick was working.

The birds were taken aback for few minutes, inspecting and smelling the impediments that lay so elaborately spread out their way, but soon settled on the unit to wipe everything clean with their feet and resume the construction of their new home. Ritu, who was by now shaking uncontrollably with rage, sprang out of hiding and ran wildly towards the AC unit with her raised arms to scare the birds away. But the determined birds would fly off for a while and again get back to their task high on the unit, leaving fuming Ritu to her misery below. She stood there brandishing a long wooden rod, discouraging them from doing their task but at the same time being extremely cautious of not touching and damaging the unit. The sun was beginning to beat hard on her soft skin and it was becoming increasingly unbearable to stand there and keep waving the rod like a flag in the stadium, without being ridiculed by the neighbors. Ritu left the battlefield dejected and miserable to step inside to the comfort of her bedroom and plan her next strategy.

Ritu phoned few of the staff members of her now shut school owing to the nationwide lock-down on the account of Covid – 19 pandemic. By evening some suggestions that looked promising, were acted upon and items like black paper crow, a stuffed monkey, (full of dust) belonging to her son’s infancy years and a fake egg were collected from various nooks and corners of the house and placed on the AC unit while the birds were away. Ritu felt glad when she went out in the morning to check to find all items intact on the unit and the birds absent; and the lucky husband got his tea that morning with the newspaper. Ravi wanted to comment that day as well but decided against it realising fully well his views on the matter wouldn’t be tolerated. He was anyways content that his morning tea was served without him being bothered in any way; but somehow he wasn’t convinced that the matter was done and dusted as yet.

Ravi was jolted out of the depths of his newspaper when he heard an alarming commotion outside his bedroom and he leapt towards the verandah to witness the adamant birds, now in the company of their friends, being helped to slowly push the fakes down the unit one by one. All of Ritu’s dreams of the securing a victory were being shattered with bang and she grew out of control shouting at everyone around in hope to scare the birds away. Two of her neighbors ran inside, confused and terrified of her behavior but not the birds that were quickly getting rid of everything placed there to commence their activity. Indoors once again, calls were made by Ritu and new tenders invited for the complete dismantling and decimation of the invader’s abode. Many plans and strategies were discarded and new sought from her friends and family members but all the while Ravi was kept out of the consultations.

In the end when nothing measured up to Ritu’s expectations, Ravi suggested something she was forced to consider as it made perfect sense. Suspicious still, she examined the idea with her mother and friends and only after being given a go ahead by them, she decided to implement it. Two of her peons were summoned from their homes and upon their arrival, a big ladder sought from a neighbor to climb up and measure the gap between the top of the unit and the ceiling. Once that was established, card-boards of that size were searched by all concerned in and outside of the house. With cues once again from Ravi, two empty shoe boxes were pressed and glued into the gap leaving no space for anything living or dead between the AC unit and the ceiling. Now there was no way anything could be built there and everyone left immensely satisfied and relieve at the same time.

Ravi’s efforts and ideas bore fruits and he was treated to some delicious meals in the following days by Ritu, whose victory was glorified by her relatives and friends and her resolve for all things important in life were appreciated immensely. She subsequently started to accompany her husband in the verandah for morning tea and occasionally glanced towards the AC unit to make sure of her victory.

“I feel bad that I didn’t allow them to settle here, but the dwelling in the east brings bad fortune. I wish they had chosen the back unit instead,” she lamented one morning sounding dejected. Ravi was tempted to say something but decided against it and just smiled. In the times of the lock-down, people were always indoors but lot of Ravi’s time was spent in and around the verandah particularly at the dawn and dusk and he noticed something intriguing.

It was when the clouds, were being as adamant as his wife, in keeping the Sun from being out on the horizon, Ravi noticed a mild movement around his AC unit. It was followed by a faint sound of flapping of wings and there in an instance emerged a beak out of nowhere from behind the unit and from a tiny space between the unit and the wall it was mounted on, flew a Mynah, swiftly disappearing into the dense surrounding of the neighborhood. Ravi let out a small cry and hurried on to inspect the site that had appeared so calm till moments ago. On studying very minutely, he detected a small hole plucked in the shoe box from where the bird had appeared. It looked like the perfect game of chess where clearly his wife was checkmated all ends. The birds had cleverly used the opponent resources to house their new family. After being certain that the mynah had laid eggs that had probably been hatched by now, Ravi leapt toward his chair before his unsuspecting wife could lay the tray of two tea cups thereon the table and pretended to admire the cloudy weather. Ritu looked little apprehensive about the nervousness of her husband but didn’t make much of it since he was quite odd in her eyes anyways.

While sipping on his tea and hiding behind the newspaper, Ravi went into a deep thought as to what should be the course of action to counter this new development. The daily stomach bulging feast, sweeten by pampering, was on the line. Moreover the calm prevailing over the family during the pandemic was a welcome change for him and his two children who were also surprised with the sudden generosity of their mother. If he didn’t do anything about the situation, sooner than later his wife would notice the presence of the birds and turn this serenity on its head into a storm.

He sat thinking for a while and then blurted, “Ritu do you know the whole poem about Mynahs.”

“I don’t and have no interest in knowing,” said Ritu, little surprised at the sudden topic.

“But I googled it and learned that more than four of these birds bring in Gold and Silver as fortune,” declared Ravi, who wasn’t ready to give up so easily.

“No I have had enough of these for now,” rebutted Ritu, who wasn’t having any of it.

Ravi remained calm and showed her the poem and explained to her that if they had let the birds nested, they could have called good fortune upon themselves. Ritu reluctantly agreed to the fact that whatever she had done wasn’t quite right and wished none of it to have happened. That day was the most difficult to pass as Ravi decided to wait till the next day to break the news to his wife. At night he again lamented the events that had occurred in the last few days and brought Ritu to agree to regret her deeds.

In the morning Ravi waited patiently under the AC unit for the bird to emerge while Ritu was in the kitchen preparing tea. He patted the unit lightly with the wooden rod to stir things inside the shoe box and soon a parent hopped out of the hole to make an inquiry. At that moment Ravi, in hope to break the story, shouted to beckon his wife. Before Ritu could approached he exclaimed, “God has listen to our prayers and guided the birds to make the nest here in this shoe box.” He excitedly showed her the birds and hugged her tightly hoping to deter her from making a scene. Ritu was too stunned to react and got carried away with her loving husband’s display of affection and slowly but surely embraced the situation. She reclined to the fact that God had mended her wrong doing and although she had lost the battle of jealousy and hatred, she had won the war of good fortune and peace.