gpsastry: Farmyard Metaphors

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It is funny that crows don't 'crow'...they caw.

But cocks crow. Here is the biblical quote:

Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice...

...25And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not. 26One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? 27Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.

We had lots of huts in Muthukur each with a conical roof covered by thatch and hay and with a crown on their top. And come dawn, the resident cock would go up the crown and start crowing like nobody's business. And the call of the first cock would be an alarm clock for a dozen others who would mount their roofs and join the dawn-call.

It was quite a sight to watch. Maybe the cocks are thrilled by the advent of a new day. But every bird in the jungle revels in a new dawn, celebrating one more day in the making.

While living in Qrs C1-97 at IIT KGP, I once bought a Panasonic Recorder-cum-Player that could record, somewhat, the sounds of the surroundings. And for a couple of days I woke up before dawn, carried the damn thing into the backyard and switched it on.

And I noticed that every creature around gets up at the crack of dawn and makes its own celebratory noises. After a few minutes it would be quite a cacophony. But for the crows, none of the other birds would make a scene of it...they sing their songs practically unseen.

So it is a wonder why the cocks of Muthukur made it a point to go up all the way and start crowing. Anyway this feature of cocks is what is conveyed by the metaphor:

"crowing"

which means bragging and boasting about their prowess...not a very wise thing.

And that's why perhaps owls are considered the epitome of wisdom. These night birds are much cleverer than the roosters. I watched lots of them while taking nightly walks on the Road to Gate # 5 at IIT KGP, particularly after a short sharp monsoon shower. Each lamp post would be adorned by a single owl watching the road closely for its prey. I never saw two of them together. And the owls were so shy that if during my walk I happened to lift my head to have a look at them, they would take off and fly away back into the darkness to their hideouts in the boles of trees or whatever.

Owls don't crow...they do their job with perfect stealth. And with superb silence. No bragging for them about their achievements. They are supposed to hoot but I never heard their hoots.

My Guide SDM used to tell me that in life it is best to avoid exciting envy. Apparently he had learned this lesson at great expense during his long sojourn at Calcutta University.

Every Caesar raises a Cassius at his own peril.

I guess envy is solely the trait of men, women, and apes.

Hens have rather less to crow about...they have their painful business of raising their brood, and busy. They cluck at best.

And 'clucking' is more a metaphor for expressing concern with a touch of glee...like our journos here had clucked over the past week over the developments in IPL.

'As mad as a wet hen' is the epitome of anger, frustration and inability. I don't know why it is only wet hens that get mad when drenched. I noticed that all domesticated animals dislike being sprinkled with water...especially street dogs...they just run away and stop bothering you.

'Chicken' is a metaphor for cowardice...like the students of IIT KGP once chickened out when the IITTA declared Reco-Boycott.

'Chicken' is also a pretty young thing...especially 'spring chicken'.

'Chick Lit' is a word popularized only in 1990s, wiki tells me.