The cry of the cuckoo

This year though the Cuckoo arrived in end February in Goa, as if to caution us that enough was enough, stop cutting trees as one day I shall not be able to sing my painful song!

- HIMANSHU DHULIYA

Beauty to us it may be, it is cuckoo's cry, her lament and sorrowful call for company!

Cuckoos arrive as the spring's warmth beckons them, but with early warming of weather she thinks that her arrival time has approached!

Why is it that the Cuckoo hides herself around the leaves of tree branches, prefers to remain unseen? Is she shy? I look for her always and sometimes see her sitting alone singing her sad sweet song. Perhaps, enticing or cajoling her mate! Maybe she wants her privacy when she finds her mate. Does she know that how beautiful she sings? How happy she makes all of us? How much music and comfort and joy she gives to the world, Is she shy because she is dark? May be, but she possesses a beautiful heart and inner beauty and voice so soul stirring. I have been observing this sound since years. I am not sure if it is to herald the spring or the approaching summer or to announce the mango flowering and ripening thereafter or an advance notice, invitation or caution of the monsoons but there is melody and distinct pain in her call. Though it sings in spring the call can be heard even in early June. I have learnt that both male and female Cuckoos call, but since years I have perceived the cuckoo call with the female cuckoo only.

During my early student days I always connected cuckoo to summer and mangoes after having heard a classical song in raag 'Malkaus' during School Annual day function - "koyaliya bole amuva ki daar par." (Koyal sings sitting on the mango tree branch). In Kochi I was pleased to hear the cuckoo almost through the year as the mangoes are available on trees much prior and beyond the standard summer months. Could it be the mango which motivates the cuckoo to sing? And mangoes do appear by end March/early April and keep us company till the middle of monsoon.