C for Chicken

"Chicken"!!! - Reminds you of a tasty dish(vegetarians, please excuse) right?
And "chick", often used to refer to a stylish young woman, correct?

Well, now we are going to see a different meaning of 'chicken' and 'chick'.
A definition which we all know, but easy to forget in this world of Food and Fashion.
Chicken: The common domestic fowl
Chick: A young chicken
Hen: adult female chicken


Patience, please, let me explain first the reason for all this chicken talk.

Today morning, i was walking down the road and saw three hens outside a small house.
Everytime i see a hen, flash!, a childhood memory comes up in my mind.

----FLASHBACK START-----
Around 13 years back, i used to go for drawing classes everyday after school hours.
In the class, there were boys and girls of different ages... A few came to learn out of their interest and all others came coz of their parents' interest.

The teacher was very talented, patient and had good sense of humour.
For beginners, he used to draw a sketch on the book, and the student has to make a replica of it.
Sometimes he used to put an object before the class and asked us to draw that.
At times, he would think up of some simple subject and the student has to draw it out based on memory and observation.

One day, he asked few of the more experienced students to draw a hen.
I, among the newbies, was assigned the task of drawing the exact image of the mineral water bottle on his desk. (looks simple, but so tough to capture it on paper, you know)
The class was silent for a while, busy drawing, erasing and drawing again.

I was busy in my sketch when a deep sigh from our teacher made us all look up at him.
Standing beside him, was a girl student in late teens, with her sketch of "Hen" on the teacher's table.
We couldn't see her drawing from our places and waited eagerly to know the cause of our teacher's sigh.
A dramatic pause and pin drop silence in the class.
Then he asked her, 'When did you ever see a chicken with four legs?'
Oh the expression on his face - priceless!!!
We all burst out laughing.
She was a cool girl BTW. None of this embarrassed her.
She joined in the laughter and her answer was simple and honest - 'Sir, its been a long time since I saw a live chicken'.
----FLASHBACK END-----

Since then everytime i see a chicken, i smile and think of her answer and how true it is.
Even in towns like the place where i grew up, things change at a rapid pace.
As a kid playing on streets i remember hens, goats, buffaloes, donkeys (oh i miss them the most), stray dogs here and there in almost every street.
But nowadays... its such a rare sight.

The only form of chicken which we get to see is the one served in Chicken Biryani, chicken curry, soup, ... u name the dishes...

Am afraid that if i ask my nephew how many legs does chicken have, he might get the count from leg joints in a plate of chicken biryani.
Forget my nephew, maybe my own friends might do the same ;) Just kidding.

I don't think these kind of domestic animals are kept in Zoo either. So its so easy to forget how they look like.
Makes me feel sad that most people get to see them in poultry farm as just a source of meat and eggs and not as a household pet as they once were.

I am a strict non-vegetarian, but these thoughts make me think seriously about cutting down the meat intake.
The rate at which we are eating, chickens may as well be among the endangered species pretty soon...

Writing this in hope that, next time you think of chicken, you'll think of it as a beautiful bird and,yes, with TWO legs only :)

Hey! Look what i got on googling for chicken legs count...

Below is the relevant extract from answers.yahoo.com

Question (posted in 2009):
How many legs does a chicken have?
((---See i told you, people have already started forgetting how chicken looks like---))

Answers:
1) how many legs have u observed ?
cos what i saw was 2...

2) I think it has 3, but thats just the space chickens...

3) LOL

2...

and yum.. I love them with BBQ Sauce.. :-)

4) I've seen 2 legs but if you are including the wings I guess it would have 4

5) Mine's got no leg, its all on my plate. Or boiling in the soup.... my oh my, i love chicken and peanut soup.

6) They don't have legs they have drumsticks!
((---this answer is not my own, i swear, its there in that website only... but i would have thought on similar lines.. so same pinch to whoever posted that answer---))

And ofcourse they were many responses with the right answer
7) 2 legs

Thank God!!!