Two For Joy – by Charmaine Candappa
High on the almost leafless tree, I see through my window a large bird’s nest. The magpies have taken over the nest and whirl confidently around it. I miss the sparrows occupying the nest and twittering from branch to branch. My husband a nature lover reminded me that magpies belong to the crow family with their black and white feathers. The magpies have an unsavory reputation for being notorious thieves, stealing eggs from bird’s nests, and pecking young birds. There is often a roof of twigs on top of the nests making it secure from other predators. There is an old folklore that says how to foresee the immediate future by the number of magpies seen together at one time. Growing up as a child in Srilanka, my friends would say “ one for sorrow, two for joy “, on seeing a brood of magpies in the garden. We would persuade ourselves to see two of them or it seemed we had seen the same one twice. Still, today I am happy that in spite of the magpies, I wake up to a cheerful dawn by the sound of birds. The compound outside is alive with twittering sparrows, humming birds, cooing pigeons, magpies, and a solitary squirrel climbing in a frenzy up and down the Oak tree. Recently a solitary magpie swept past me, “ One for sorrow indeed “. It made me determined to look for “two for joy”.
