It was a balmy Odisha afternoon. There was a bright but benign sun, cloudless blue skies, a cool sea-breeze, and an interesting beach-drama being played out in the middle distance. It was not very far to the beach-’n-sea - as the crow flies -from the very comfortable chair I was ensconced in at the balcony of my 2^nd floor room at the Mayfair Waves in Puri. There was the muted song-of-the-seas, less heard and more seen as the breakers hit the shore and turned the waters in a cloud of white foam. A boat, with fishing nets piled on one side, its dozen odd oars jutting out on both sides in an orderly fashion, framed by some hotel-trees, was at the main point of focus. In front of the boat and on the stretch of the beach on both sides, children and adults were gamboling and running about, stray dogs doing their tricks, plus horse and camel rides. But it appeared that despite the perpetual extremely energetic motion of the seas and rather hectic human activity on the beach, the drama was being played out in slow motion. It was all so peaceful that it constantly reminded me of what Robert Browning had said in his ‘Pippa’s Song’ -  “….God’s in His heaven – All’s right with the world!”

The extremely peaceful atmosphere and the magic of the moment was shattered as a crow, furiously flapping its wings, flew past my nose and settled on a ledge on an adjoining roof. It perched there and was preening about, as if showing off its beauty. The way it was showing-off made me think that it was a lady-crow. I do not have any expertise whatsoever to make out the gender of a flying crow – or of most other birds except chicken and peacocks – Maybe I was right. Because soon, another crow flew past my seat and first showed off its flying skills in front of ‘the lady’ and then perched a little distance away from her. After some (love?) squawking, the newcomer kept on edging sideways towards her till they were close together. Then there were minutes of jostling, much beak-touching, excited squawking and downright crow-wrestling. Suddenly the man-crow decided that he needed proving himself more. As his lady-love watched, he indulged in some really fancy flying in front of her, cutting flying capers of the very daring kind. It was a really exciting display of aerobatics crow-style (‘crowbatics’?).  Not to be left behind, his lady too hopped off and the couple put up a fine display of ‘formation-flying” with many a complicated flying maneuvers. Do you think it was all being done silently? No Sir, all this happened with much excited and very loud love-talk (?) in crow-language. I think even crows must be getting a bit tired. Especially with frantic love-flying. So, after about five minutes of flying together, they settled back and started some more loud and excited squawking. Were they announcing their getting engaged?

It appeared so. Soon there were flights of crows arriving from all directions and settling not only on the ledge near our couple but all over. On the branches of palms below the ledge, on a water tower behind the ledge, on a TV tower nearby and wherever else they could find a perch.

It soon turned into a convention-cum-celebration with endless animated (‘bird-mated’?) squawking, forming and breaking of groups and many a celebratory flying display. It was one big gathering of Happy Crows – ‘singing’ and ‘dancing’.  A truly amazing happening!

I sat enraptured and could have could have watched forever. But there was a spoilsport. Darkness. It was soon so dark that I could not see what The Crow Convention was doing. Just hearing was not enough. But the event was such an exciting one that I just have to open my Third Eye to enjoy the happenings of that evening. Over and over again.

It was a balmy Odisha afternoon. There was a bright but benign sun, cloudless blue skies, a cool sea-breeze, and an interesting beach-drama being played out in the middle distance. It was not very far to the beach-’n-sea - as the crow flies -from the very comfortable chair I was ensconced in at the balcony of my 2<