ONCE upon a time, there lived a crow on a tree with a bunch of pigeons. All the pigeons boosted about their looks and colour and about how they were liked by humans who would feed them grains regularly.

Whenever humans sprinkle grains for the pigeon, the crow would also jump in to have some but often the humans would shoo it away. At that time, the proud pigeons would step in the ground and pass a smile to the poor crow. The crow felt so lonely and thought maybe it is its colour and its voice that makes it ugly. It always hated being an ugly crow. However, there often came a wise owl on the tree that would comfort the poor crow and tell it to be happy the way it is and each species is unique in its own way. But the crow would never understand.

One day while flying, the crow saw a lamp lying on the road side. It was like a teapot, but golden coloured. It flew to it and turned it here and there with its beak. All of a sudden the lamp started to shake and blue smoke came out — it took the shape of huge round figure — perhaps a genie. He was all blue with no legs and he was floating in the air. His yellow eyes were very big, and he looked at the crow in amazement.

In a thundering voice he said, “My name is Juju, and I am a genie; whoever rubs my lamp will be granted three wishes.”

For the crow it was a dream come true. And without wasting any time it said, “I want my feathers to be of white colour.”

The crow saw Juju cast a spell, and soon its colour turned white. The crow jumped in excitement, and said, “O Juju! Please wait. I shall be back after surprising my friends.”

“I shall be here, in this lamp,” said genie and he disappeared.

The pearl-white crow flew towards the pigeons to surprise them, and the pigeons said, “Who are you?”

“I am your friend, crow,” and showed off its feathers. All the pigeons laughed at the crow hysterically, and said that its horrible voice did not suit its white makeover. They thought it looked and sounded weird now.

The crow was embarrassed. Thus, it flew back to the place it had left the lamp to make its second wish. Juju appeared and welcomed crow.

The crow said, “Please, change my voice to something sweeter like the cuckoo’s chirp.”

Juju snapped his fingers and the crow’s voice changed to that like cuckoo birds. The crow thanked Juju and went to surprise its friends again.

It did surprise the birds that had come to its tree to see this new species of bird. When the crow tried to caw, it chirped. All the pigeons and crows could not stop laughing. The crow didn’t realise that it was silly that being a big bird it sounded like a little bird. Everyone present there was amused.

The crow hurried to the genie. Unfortunately, the lamp was not there. The crow was stunned and started to cry. It flew to the nearby tree and kept crying the whole day. The crow felt lonelier than ever before. That night the wise owl came and said, “Look at you, white and chirping!”

The crow started crying. “Poor fellow, you are what you are, don’t hate it. If you hate yourself nobody will ever like you. Just love yourself and your kind.”

The crow realised that it was better in its natural condition. Now everyday it flew around looking for a sign of the lamp or the genie. With every passing day, it realised how ungrateful it had been and regretted its decision.

Finally one day when the crow was flying over a lake it saw something shining under the shallow water on the bank. It was the same lamp! After several attempts, it managed to drag it to the shore and rubbed its body to the lamp.

Juju appeared stretching in the air. “Oh, so you are here for your third wish!”

“Yes, yes, my third wish is to please turn me back to my natural form.”

“Why?” asked Juju.

“Because, we’re best the way we are. God made us perfect, no matter what,”

Juju smiled, and said, “You learned your lesson, very well back to your old self!”

With a poof, Juju disappeared with his lamp, and the crow turned back to the way it was — black and beautiful.