Lamenting Bird

A convenient feast of hawk dove is always seen lost in sad thoughts & the note emanated is, therefore, in the same stream.

A single dove ruffling in the leaves & fields does make a summer at least for me. Silently mostly alone or with some other I assume its mate it eats seeds, grains, fruits & insects like earthworm with its slender bill. It comes near, then retracts fearing even the caring human hand as monstrous.

This beautiful bird is symbolic of innocence, diligence, peace, purity in love & affection. The nightingale & swallow may carry their own myths but why our dove remains in the mourning posture by very frequently cooing sorrowfully has a folklore that befits our environs & pastoral way of life.

The folklore has it that once a mother dove sent her little son with grains to the watermill. When he came back she weighed the flour but found it less in weight. She was so infuriated that without any second thought she struck him with a staff in a fit of rage resulting in his instant death.

Once the anger cooled down she again weighed but this time she found that the weight of grains & flour was alright.

Since then she has been lamenting over the death of her son & in atonement of that sin she has been cooing mournfully : “Gug putra pur, pur, pur.” ( My son it was as much as I had given ) This sad note is repeated intermittently during daytime. It is cooed 3-5 times in a single breath but I had noticed it go even upto 10-13 times in a university campus in Haryana.

Be mountains or plains the sorrow continues “Gug Putra pur, pur, pur, pur,pur.. ….”

(U in ‘pur’ sounds oo as in moon)