We had a visitor

I woke up and looked out of the window. The first thing I saw was this beautiful 'Kuil' in Malayalam and Tamil, the 'Koel' in other Indian languages and the 'Cuckoo' in English sitting on one of the branches of my tree friend. This is a small one, a youngster.

The mother lays an egg is laid in the host's nest and once hatched the chick forces the other eggs and hatchlings out of the nest. Once the small one is out of the nest, the parent takes care of them.

My parents had a nice way of putting the same: The Kuil did not know how to build her nest nor does she bother to learn. So, when it is time to lay her eggs, she visits a crows nest. She lays her egg in the crows nest when the crow goes away in search of food. When the eggs hatch, the crow to her surprise finds a spotted kid. The crow is happy and takes care of the spotted one more than the others for the others are black like her. At the same time, the mother Kuil comes everyday and sits on the same tree and sings her song. This goes on till the kids are a little old. When it is time to learn to fly, the mother Kuil prods her kid to sing the song. When the little one opens her mouth, what comes out is a Koo, Koo instead of the Caw, Caw of a crow. That is when the crow understands, she has been duped. She fights with the mother Kuil and throws the kid out of her nest. The mother Kuil then takes her child with her and teaches her how to sing. and fly(but not to build a nest, for she herself does not know). Moral - nothing comes good out of laziness(Kuil not learning how to build her nest) and there is only disgrace in doing wrong.