"We mean happiness for you":Myna

                         

Hi! 
I am Myna, speaking from the courtyard of this rather silly, unworldly, but your friendly blogger-cum-lover of a man: Subhash.
Yes, chirpy, garrulous Myna. सारिका (ever-flowing), पीतनेत्रा (yellow-eyed), पीतपादा (yellow-footed) and कलह-प्रिया (feud-loving) are my other Hindi/Sanskrit names. To be honest, I can't figure out the logic of naming me सारिका. And as regards my other name कलह-प्रिया, well I simply detest it  even though some of you may find in it an apt description of me!

Slim and trim, I am dressed in soft, smooth, brown plumage. A small bare yellow patch around each of my eyes is my beauty spot. Besides, to flaunt, I have a white mirror, one on each wing, which I show best when I fly.  My shapely golden beak and toes are my pride, and proud peacock’s envy. The story (with a moral) goes that I stole them from the peacock in a dancing match! Be that as it may, don’t I look a sexy damsel?

 Like my puny, timid friend sparrow, I love man’s company, his courtyard and his surroundings. I often get into a running feud with a sparrow or my own kind over a grain or a morsel but still we all get on well together.  A farmer ploughing the field exerts a magic pull on me. Whether I am alone or in a group, it is such fun prancing around, dancing and hopping about to catch a little worm. Wow! How much we mynas adore those succulent tidbits being dug up by the moving plough! So yummy! The grazing cattle too attract us. We love this little sport with them: side-walking, or simply hanging around waiting and watching, and then making a short ground-to-air sortie to catch mid-air, a disturbed  green grasshopper leapfrogging from grass.

Like sparrows we are wary of that big brother: crow. In fact we are hardly friends with him. Boy, so meddlesome and such a nasty thief is he. Always on the lookout, perched high above on a roof or a tree branch to steal our bread crumb, rice or whatever, we resent his presence and his bossy, arm-twisting ways.

Yes, I chirp and twitter too much. And when we mynas are in assembly our collective chatter may even split the heavens above… A feminine trait we perhaps share with the squabbling middle-aged ladies in your neighbourhood. Well that’s what and how we are. Just can’t help chattering. But leaving that aside, we are your friends getting you rid of pest, paper and rubbish… as much as we can. In fact, you may not believe, our fame as pest-eaters and farmer’s friends transcends the Asian shores.

Know you about my cousin the Hill Myna ( see the pic below)? Isn’t, of all mynas, this one the cutest of all with those lovely orange patches and wattles? And the way these beauties imitate the words you teach, even dear parrot is no match when it comes to tongue-twisting. But I pity this cousin of mine… the poor thing.  You cage so many of them as pets for your pleasure. To hear them speak your pet words like ‘राम’ and ‘गंगाराम’. You sell them in the market indiscriminately. It has been going on for so long that now their numbers have declined. We mynas are therefore now a protected species.

Your folklore and mythology is replete with legends and stories about us. We symbolise true love. Let the world turn more prurient and adulterous with changing values, and by the invasion of internet. But we have and will remain devoutly monogamous always. Parrot is my mythological lover. Hence the popular Hindi song “तोता मैना की कहानी...", and so many others. And I feel so delighted when I hear young lovers petting their sweethearts and swearing their love with endearments like “तू मेरी मैना”, “मैं तोता और तू मैना” … and so on. (But truly speaking, and true to biological laws, it is my own kind I do always make love with.) 

Another thing: "one for sorrow", "two for joy"…so goes your popular legend. But that’s not true. Whether you chance to see one myna or many, we always mean joy and happiness for you. But do you too feel the same for us?  I am not so sure. At least my cousin hill myna certainly doesn’t think so. As for us, populationwise, we are not so worse off unlike our friends, the sparrows. But with changing land use, senseless urbanisation and worsening ecology, we may be the next to come under your axe of development, who knows?

Here’s hoping all will be well and good sense will prevail and we will all live happily together…as has so wisely and beautifully been said in your Sanskrit hymn: “सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः..." 
Bye; take care.

                                                                       
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