one of those books that happened to me. Literally. The Universe conspired, and how!

I was on one of my sabbaticals from work, looking for a meaningful turn to my creativity. That was the period that I was on a diet of books, movies, life! I wanted to be a sponge and just soak in every experience, dream, emotion, inspiration, especially because I had moved to a foreign country.

I remember watching the movie Crash - that left an indelible mark on me. The interdependence of human beings, regardless of race, religion and colour, leapt out so strongly. Something stirred within, left me with an uneasiness that I couldn’t give expression to. Well, not yet. So stayed with it and observed it.

Sometime later, an incident shook me completely from inertia - I witnessed a shocking incident at a park. I saw mothers stopping their children from playing with the other kids who were not of the same nationality. Was this ‘the so called progress’ we prided ourselves in?

Anyway, next I realised that I was sitting by the window- on one of my trips to Bombay, just thinking about it and I saw a crow come and diligently perch its ‘black’ self on my window pane - demanding its right (a piece of bread, in this case)! Just for a split second, my imagination got the better of me and saw the crow as ‘white’, not black. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The image of the white crow began to take a clearer form. And my mind popped a question ‘What if this crow was white? How would its own community behave?’

The seed was sown. And the imagination mill was at work - researching, understanding the world of crows, which opened up an entire universe, not known to me, so far. We knew so little of this ‘humble’ creature, almost considered ‘ugly’, seldom credited with any significance. My mind was made up. I had to tell an extraordinary story through an ordinary mouthpiece - the crow and thereby elevate their lot to some endearing attention. After all, they deserved to be heroes as well. I began spending more and more time with my new venture - outlining the plot, creating the Universe of crows, their ‘cawscapes’ and the canvas of characters.

And the premise was born - ‘the power of embracing differences’. From there sprung the story – of a white crow that is born in the land of black crows and is exiled by the king. The white crow, Snowy as he is called grows up in isolation, trying to grapple with his ‘blasphemous’ uniqueness and colour with just the support of his parents and a loyal friend Jay who is a black crow. Until one day the white crow discovers his own powers and uses them to save the land he was banished from. The story ends with an interesting twist wherein there is celebration of colours in the land.

Once the story was clear in my mind, the characters just took over and the book was written all in one uninterrupted flow. I had told the story not just about crows but about the human civilization. Thematically the book assumed a multi-layered character. So while at the macro level, it was about tolerance, forgiveness and acceptance, at the micro level, it was about embracing and celebrating the self - with all its uniqueness and quirks.

The metaphor worked for me. But how would the world interpret it? Once again, serendipity walked in through the main door.

The book launch culminated in the book being included as syllabus for grade 9 by the English Department of a reputed school in Mumbai. The out-of-the-box educator – the Principal of the school was so moved by the white crow that she felt the story had to be told to young minds since it promoted human values and the elixir of life –‘hope’.

As a writer, there could be no honour bigger than this, no award greater than that. And yet, I was keen to know how a young mind would interpret it. I didn’t have to wait very long for that. The week following the launch, at the school function where I was called officially for independence day celebrations, a teenager walked up to me with these words ‘Ma’am I read your book. It reminds me of the world we live in today… with all these border conflicts, race issues, colour conflicts and so on…’ As a writer, I felt I was home - home with what I wanted to say through the parable.

To date, the reactions to the book – from children, young adults and adults have been so diverse that I am surprised every time…yet it’s heartening to know it touches a chord somewhere, somehow. After all, I dedicated the book to ‘the white crow lurking somewhere, amidst us…’ In other words ‘to the supercrow alive… in each one of us’.

Neera Maini Srivastav is a writer of Indian origin, born and brought up in the grand metropolis of Mumbai . Always a distinguished student in the academic arena, she completed Masters in English Literature from Mumbai University, hobnobbing with literary greats. The creative inspiration continued as she spent years as a senior creative professional in advertising, then moved to a large media conglomerate like The Times of India. The compelling need to express her creativity took her to cinema and she offered her creative sensibilities to one of

India's largest movie production houses. Having explored different genres of writing, right from building brands to writing feature stories for newspapers and magazines, she is now making a foray into screenwriting for both television and cinema. She believes, 'sabbaticals are the most fertile periods of creative and human growth' which usher in new dawns, every now and then. A passion to learn and unlearn are her perpetual pursuits which include her avid interest in new age spirituality and metaphysics. She continues to draw inspiration from almost everything- bird, tree, flower, stone, sky…. just about everything in the cosmos. She lives the adage 'I create, therefore I am' . Currently she is walking somewhere, chit-chatting with her characters from her next book, to be launched soon. Courtesy: www.thewhitecrow.info

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