"Murder" I wrote...

When I woke this morning, I saw a murder. Right outside my living room window! It was bad enough that today, being a day after India's 64th Republic Day, there were no newspapers! But to see a murder?!!

Thankfully, this was an unusually quiet murder - no noise, at all. You could actually hear a pin drop. 

The wife, in the kitchen, getting my morning dose of filter coffee  made a lot of noise when I called her to see what I was seeing - "Rohini", I called, "come here, look out of this window. There's a murder happening right now!" So she came, noisily, eyes blazing full on, all agog and excited.

"Murder?" she asked, "What murder? Where?" 

I pointed. Outside my window. There's that rain tree? I said "Look, there?"

Her voice went up a few more decibels. A higher octave altogether. "What?! Those crows?!! I can see only crows!" 

So I asked her, laughingly, "How many do you see?"

There were a large enough number to safely say that one needed more than the fingers of both hands..... perhaps around 15 or 16. So I said to her, "What do you call a large number of crows?"

Those wide eyes went impossibly wider, that voice even one octave more as she did a small gig in excitement.... "Aaaaaaaaahhhaaaaa?!! A MURDER of crows?!!!!"

My coffee tasted a wee bit more fresh this morning. :)