BENGALURU : Early in the monsoon time, koels start singing their sweet song, calling for its mate. All around India, the song of the koel is celebrated in poetry and songs as the harbinger of the monsoon, its plaintive cry an early reminder that the thunder and lightning of the dark, the looming monsoon is around the corner. In fact, most of the year, you would hardly hear the bird at all, and just before the heavy rains start, you couldn’t get them to shut up even for a gazillion rupees.
When the cuckoo sings, sweet as it sounds, it is also time for the humble crow to be careful. Once the koel has impressed a suitable mate with its singing, they get down to business and soon they are going to look for a crow’s or mynah’s nest to lay their eggs, and they usually do it while removing one of the crow’s own eggs. Sometimes, the nest has a mix of crow and koel eggs, and sometimes they might end up being all koel eggs! What’s more, the cuckoo’s egg hatches earlier than the crow’s, which then ends up feeding the koel chick. Of course, if the crow recognises the manipulation, it pushes out the koel egg off its nest, or drives the chick off, but enough koel chicks survive to keep the cycle going.
Imagine for a moment that you are the crow, and the nest is the one you dream of with the person you love. You are feathering it well, making it comfortable for yourself, brood over your feelings, and are lost in your own love, as lovers do. Are you and your love truly safe? Are there villainous koels around, looking to slyly shift things with their own agenda? Their songs might seem sweet, and the monsoon they promise might be bountiful, but be sure to check in: Is there a koel trying to get into your little crow’s nest?
In love and in relationships, protecting your own home and your own love is not always easy. Our mythologies talk of so many stories of lovers slyly parted by jealous people, those inserting themselves into relationships, driving wedges between the sweet, lovelorn characters of the story. Sometimes, it is even parents or other family members who don’t quite approve of the love you feel for religion, caste, community or any other reason.It is the stuff of melodramatic movies and TV soaps, to be sure, but does love sometimes need to protect itself?
We do need to check once in a while if our boundaries are ok, if we are guarding our own interests, whether it is against a prejudiced society, families that are stuck in outdated norms, or even jealous friends. Much as we might want to trust that the world will be happy for us in our love, it isn’t always the case -- every now and then, there is a koel around the corner looking out for themselves.
Lovers everywhere, beware! The writer is counsellor with InnerSight