Chennai: As the rising sun spreads a silver carpet over the waves each morning, hundreds of crows wait for a familiar whistle by the Thiruvanmiyur beach. And when the loud, almost shrill, sound from the stocky fair man’s pouted lips floats through the sea breeze, it’s breakfast time for the birds.
“I bring biscuits and kara-boondi for my winged friends. I start whistling as I near this spot and the crows sitting on trees near and far, and on the parapet walls of buildings all around the beach, fly in like super jets”, said S. Vishnu Prasad, who has been feeding the crows at the same beach parapet wall for almost five years now, “on all days except when it rains heavy and the birds don’t come”.
The 55-year-old registrar at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences at Taramani, which comes under the Department of Atomic Energy, stays at the staff quarters on ECR some ten minutes walk from the morning rendezvous with his avian friends. “We usually shun and shoo away the crows considering them ugly and a nuisance; they are black and unattractive while their call is annoying. But how often do we pause to consider their service to humanity in cleaning up our litter and other obnoxious wastes?”
But that’s not the main reason why Prasad is at the beach with his biscuits and boondi. His love for the crows started some five years ago at the same beach, thanks to an old man.
“His name was Shanmugam and he was about 85. He would be at this very same spot every morning with his two packets of biscuits for the crows. I would admire him, wish him vanakkam, and even chide him in jest saying the birds would become diabetic eating his biscuits. He would laugh”, recalled Prasad.
Then one day, he found the man on a bench at a nearby park. “He told me he was unable to walk and could I please take his two packets of biscuits for the waiting friends at the beach? That went on for a couple of days and then, he went missing. I continued feeding the crows and only days later did I learn that he had passed away”, said Prasad.
Continuing after a long pause as he silently laid out the boondi and biscuit bits on the beach wall, Prasad said, “I told myself that the old man had left a message for me, of love and care. And I decided I will continue his habit. I bring five packets of biscuits and two packets of kara-boondi every morning.
“You will be surprised if I tell you my guests sincerely follow the queue and line up on this parapet wall for the feed. They don’t fight among themselves; very much disciplined unlike us humans”.
