The Birgani Dish

Coco crow was very fond of listening to songs. While listening, he would get excited and start singing along loudly.

- Vandana Gupta

One day, a family of bulbuls lived on a tree nearby, and the children were studying.

"Mom, Uncle Coco is singing so loudly that we cannot study," the children complained.

"He is cawing in such a harsh voice!

I, too, have a headache. I'll go and ask him to stop right now," their father said angrily and went to Coco's house.

The mother bulbul, Neena, stopped him. "It's not good to fight in the neighbourhood like this."

"So, what do we do? Do we continue to bear the noise? It has become difficult to live here."

"I will talk to him," Neena said and headed to Coco's house.

"Wow! Coco, you sing so well! Today I learned that such a great singer lives in our neighbourhood," Neena said to Coco.

"No, you're just exaggerating!" Coco said shyly.

"I'm not! But why should you waste your precious voice like this? You should be singing in a concert where everyone would buy tickets and enjoy your singing."

"For that, I'll have to practice a lot," Coco said.

"But I don't think you should practice like this in front of everyone. Don't make everyone listen to your voice without buying a ticket," Neena said and left.

Coco began thinking about the concert., "Everyone sings at functions, but I want to do something different. I must start by learning about great musicians."

He went to the library and brought some books about music legends. One of those books was about the 16th-century musician, Tansen. Coco read that Tansen was one of Akbar's nine gems. His command of classical music was so remarkable that he composed many new ragas. He was such a skilled singer that he could light a fire by singing Raga Deepak and even bring rain by singing Raga Malhar.

Coco was very impressed by his story.