Contemplation on death and life has been going on for ages. Throughout civilization. Throughout history. Throughout culture. Throughout everywhere. Throughout nowhere. The beauty of talking about death and life lies on this that every individual is sure about the choice they make between two without overshadowing one while choosing another. People always seemed to be confused about the choice like the life they are living.
It was November morning. The morning breeze had its Kathmanduness and the lovely sunshine was making it worthy day to come. College had reopened with the zeal and vigor from festivity. The same energy was visible in the radiant students. We had just started “The death of a moth” by Virginia Woolf which chronicles the struggle of a moth from life to death. We were in the middle of the lesson which was getting intense by the minute description of moth and Woolf’s simple language to describe the moth’s struggle in window pane. At the very moment we were distracted by the harsh sound of crow. Some of the students opened the window and said “Tchhh! Tchh! Crow is trapped there”, “there in the bamboo lush” and others followed soon. There was the remaining of thread and kite being trapped by green Bamboo and (un)fortunately crow’s leg was there for us to demonstrate the lesson. The raw demonstration. The real lesson.
Obviously, the trapped crow shouted for help. The flock of crow started to fly hither and thither of the very crow but of no avail. But nobody could provide the help. Outside there was tension. Inside the energy and reading environment sooner got into chaos and were completely drawn towards the trapped crow. Perhaps, the sign of students of Humanities. I was torn in between two crow and chaos. But inside I was feeling meditative as our reading about the death and life was being portrayed in practical way by nature. I just do not know how often we in life get the beauty of practicality of the lesson we are teaching, especially if we are students of literature and philosophy.
Some of the students who had appeared late were utilizing the pleasant morning by having tea near the bamboo bush. They tried to help the crow but that too was not so successful. The bamboo being too tall. The number of crow started to grow more in number as the time took. With the number, the harsh sound started growing
Being the student of literature I was totally drawn into Crow and started to think about crow. Crow which is symbolized as messenger of Death in many places around the world and any kind of news was in between life and death. Generally Crow hardly draws human attention in normal life except the early morning call of it from our verandah or electric poles. It may be my assumption but we are not so comfort in assimilating the crow in our daily life. The simple example of it, we try our best to avoid its nest around our garden. But hardly can anyone forget the majestic feeling of childhood when mother fed you telling the story of Crow. But of today Crow was a means of philosophical teaching for me to peek into life. And moved me from inside which is powerful life or Death??
In the same way I suddenly felt the glory of Crow is that very few things have been written about it in literary world especially in poems and essays. But who can forget the childhood stories, nursery rhymes and poems about the “Celebrity Crow” described by especially Edgar Allan Poe, Ted Hughes and Madhav Ghimire still I was not satisfied with it. Perhaps human nature. I contemplated is it its color? Or its harsh sound ? or its fierce behavior? I could not find the answer. I had to return to the class. We had left the moth as it was. The moth was dancing and outside crow was struggling. The moth dies in valiant way in the essay but the crow happily flew away. We returned to the lesson with happiness.
Moreover, one of the students raise the issue of biodiversity and asked me “Do we (humans) share the same energy that crow has?” The class was divided into two Yes and No. I tried to provide the diplomatic answer by saying that “God created both we and crow and perhaps we are part of the same ecosystem and diversity maybe we share some of the energy and consciousness.” The bell ranged. We finished the lesson. But the incident still haunted my mind for many days. I observed that we hardly take others especially animals sharing the same energy and consciousness as we have. As I finished the writing, the shrill sound of pain came to my window from the street. Brother says a puppy is hit by the motorbike. The same question comes to me which is powerful life or death?? Which should be celebrated death or life??
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