Daughters as sparrows
‘Ours is a flock of sparrows, father’: the bride's farewell song pictures daughters as birds who must one day fly from the nest.
In the suhag sung as the bride leaves, ‘ਸਾਡਾ ਚਿੜੀਆਂ ਦਾ ਚੰਬਾ ਵੇ, ਬਾਬਲ ਅਸਾਂ ਉੱਡ ਜਾਣਾ’, she tells her father that his daughters are a flock of sparrows who will fly far away, to lands no one knows. The garden, the lanes and the spinning circle she grew up in will be left behind.
The father answers that her place will be filled by the grandchildren he will one day love. It is one of the most widely sung songs in both Punjabs, and few people get through a doli, the bride's departure, without crying at it.
More signs, symbols and omens
A crow cawing on the banera, the roof's edge, means someone is coming: so women in Punjabi songs ask the crow for news of the one they wait for.
Girls spinning together in the trinjan made the charkha the Punjab's great image of youth, gossip, love and the passing of life.
The cuckoo's call, the papiha crying ‘pee kahan’ and the dancing peacock all mean one thing in Punjabi song: the rains have come and the beloved is far away.
Praise too much and you may cast nazar: hence the black spot on a baby's cheek, the black thread, and lemons and chillies over the shop door.
Sneeze as you leave and you should sit down again; an itchy palm means money; hiccups mean someone is remembering you.