Ink & Quill
Collective

QuillMark Issue #3

The Crow And The Sparrow

Majella Pinto

This particular fable was passed on orally, to fidgety little ones, by imaginative grandmothers who embellished stories with onomatopoeia.
This piece is dedicated to my friend Nilofer for orally recounting the story her grandmother narrated in the Beary language on many evenings.
Mangalore has a vast collection of multilingual communities speaking English, Konkani, Kannada, Tulu, Beary etc. This seasoned fable, flavored with details and rhymes familiar to the community, is narrated in song, rhythmic and repetitive style that encourages listeners to join in.
The moral of the story is, ‘Do not take advantage of another’s generosity.’

Artwork - Tetsong Jamir

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Majella Pinto

Majella Pinto, is a California based Indian-American writer. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, LA.

Well behaved in public, proud of her many failed hobbies, attentive to old world souls, she is unafraid of breaking rules. A wanderer and magic seeker, she is happy with heart to heart conversations, meeting strangers and loves to be surrounded by a lot of laughter like the time she slipped off a boat landing on her buttocks, sending her family into a fit.

Majella has served in editorial roles and is on the staff at Chestnut Review. Her work has appeared in Lunch Ticket, Dairy Hollow Echo, The Bombay Literary Magazine and elsewhere. She loves to paint.

She lives in California with her husband who supports her eyebrow raising creative habits. She spends a lot of time doing silly things like reading the entire dictionary.