The Tale of the Baby Crow

Once upon a time, once upon a time. There was a crow’s nest on top of an old plane tree. One day, one of the eggs in this nest crackled. The egg broke and a little crow hatched out of it. As soon as this baby crow hatched, it opened its beak and started to crow.

The little crow liked his voice so much that he went straight to his mother and said, “Mommy, look what a beautiful voice I have,” and started cawing day and night. The mother named her baby Gak Gak for its incessant cawing.

Gak Gak’s voice was so loud that it reached the birds’ nests in other trees. Every day his mother would say to him, “Dear baby, take a break; it’s not good to caw so much. It might disturb our neighbors,” she said. But Gak Gak did not listen to his mother. Indeed, the neighbors began to be disturbed by Gak Gak’s voice.

One day a little bird, one of the inhabitants of the plane tree, came to the mother crow. “Mrs. Crow, can you tell your baby not to caw so much? We all have a headache from his noise,” she said.

“I told him not to caw so much, but it didn’t help. I don’t know what to do. Please forgive me,” and apologized to the little bird. The little bird helplessly returned to its nest. Gak Gak continued to caw. The more he cawed, the more the neighbors complained to the mother crow.

Dudu the pigeon, Bilge the owl, all took turns to complain to the mother crow. Days went by like this. One morning all the birds woke up. They realized that there was not a single cawing sound around. Everything was so quiet that they were amazed. And for the rest of the day, no one heard Gak Gak’s voice.

Towards evening the little bird said, “The crow must have come to his senses. He is no longer making noise. Let me go and congratulate him for his good behavior,” and flew towards Gak Gak’s nest. When he got close to the nest, he called out, “Where are you, smart crow?”

He landed on the branch where the crow’s nest was. Seeing him, the mother crow said, “Welcome. I think you asked about Gak Gak. He is a bit unwell. We have been trying all morning. But he couldn’t say a single ‘gaaak’,” she said. The little bird entered the nest. And what did he see? Gak Gak was crying in a corner of the nest.

The more he tried to caw, the louder he cried and the louder he cried the more he cried. The little bird was very sad to see Gak Gak. She went to tell Dr. Moni. After a short while, she and the doctor returned to Gak Gak’s nest. Dr. Moni examined Gak Gak. Then she turned to the mother crow and said, “Don’t worry, his throat is swollen because he caws too much. It will get better in a few days.”

Hearing these words, the mother crow was relieved. Dr. Moni forbade Gak Gak, whose throat was swollen from cawing, to eat cheese and walnuts for a few days.

Gak Gak loved cheese and walnuts. He was a little upset. During this time he only ate soup. After a few days, Gak Gak recovered completely. But from that day on, he obeyed his mother and cawed only when necessary. The neighbors were not bothered at all.