Crows in blustering wind: how tangled can straight lines become!

Addendum I (April 23, 1992)

Between my few and casual academic duties, I spent a good deal of time on the terrace of Mount Lavinia Hotel, situated in the outskirts of Colombo, near the Katubedde campus of the University of Moratuwa—the institution that hosted me in Sri Lanka. In colonial times, the hotel was the residence of a British governor, and Lavinia was his wife’s name. Besides cool drinks and splendid views of Colombo and the ocean, the crows were the main attraction of the terrace. I would watch their antics for hours over gin and tonic. Flying hither and thither in strong but uneven wind, the crows displayed an incredible range of flying skills. My eyes locked on their nimble bodies, I would join them in my mind and fly with them from one palm tree to another, from the pool to the roof of the veranda, from the terrace railing to a lamp post. From time to time I would feel the wind’s thrust and flutter, the lightness of my feathered body, the vertigo of a sudden course correction, the stiffening of my wing muscles just before landing. And all the blessed birds wanted from me in return for these tangled rides was the abdication of all thought.

Addendum II (March 26, 1994)

I did enjoy the crows that January, but the original piece was allegoric. The proverbially straight flight of the crow was my love for Lauren; the wind was a splendid black woman I became obsessed with during my stay at Mount Lavinia. She was a ravishing beauty, but I ultimately realized that she was demented in some way on account of her boundless flirtatiousness. For a few days she would ravish me with her eyes whenever our eyes met. And they met often, although she was there with a boyfriend. On a couple of occasions I expected that she would follow me to my room, and I was ready for her. Regardless of my love for Lauren, at the time I would die for the black beauty of Mount Lavinia. But she never took the ultimate step. Most likely she enjoyed flirting much more than she enjoyed making love.