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I met Partha and Chittiappa Sir the other day at Ramdev Chai Shop on Kalidasa Road, one of our regular kattes or addas or whatever you may call it. We discussed this and that over a few rounds of “Chai and king”, which has a stimulating effect on our intellect and we tend to think more logically under its influence. We hit upon the topic of the sudden disappearance of sparrows on the city skyline. Many reasons were cited ranging from trees being cut down to stronger mobile radiation signals. A few of the katte boys joined in the discussion uninvited where they started a school of thought which suggested that there might be a unique restaurant in the city and one of its popular dishes involves sparrow meat in sumptuous quantities which might have resulted in the disappearance of the little birds. This idea was quickly rebuffed by all of us.

 

On those lines, I shall now give you an account of my own experience where a sparrow had built its nest in my window. The year was 1999 and the incident took place while we were in CFTRI Quarters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had set the alarm clock to ring at 6.00 AM. I had an important job the next day morning. This alarm clock was a gift from a cousin which had six different types of alarm calls built in. Three of them were nursery rhymes; two of them were instrumental songs and another a standard alarm tone which you find in all alarm devices.

 

I woke up next morning to an entirely different sound and began to wonder where the noise came from and what the time was. It was the sweet sound of two little young birds which had set up their nest at my window. The time was 5.55 AM and 50 seconds to the dot. It struck me as rummy as I did not remember my alarm device having any of those tones. It was after a few minutes after the clock struck six that I became fully conscious and realized the presence of the little ones at my window.

 

Windows we had during those days had two panes. On was a mesh type which opened to the inside and the other was a glass pane which opened to the outside. The windows had double panes as well. Since it was the rainy season, I had kept both the glass and the mesh panes closed. One side of the glass panes did not have a latch securing it to the window frame and opened slightly enough for a sparrow to come and build its nest in the small corridor between the glass and the mesh panes.

 

I took a closer look trying not to disturb the little ones. They were playing around in their own way. The nest was set to perfection protecting it from the wind and the rain, it actually rained in the rainy seasons during those days, and also from all the insects and pests which are present in tree barks. As I was looking, in came a bigger sparrow and started pecking violently at the mesh. It had obviously spotted me from a distance as the pane which had a broken latch had opened fully. I presumed it to be the mother. She was annoyed at me trying to spy on her little ones and wanted me to go away. I obliged her and went away not wanting to scare her and her babies away from my window and of course I had my morning duties to finish and get ready for school. I told my mother what I saw and she too came and had a look. The mother sparrow had settled down and I thought she was feeding her little ones.

 

I always wanted to have pet right from when I was young. Being a very orthodox family that we were, I was not allowed to have one. Before we moved away to CFTRI quarters we were a joint family, what with all my aunties and uncles, grandpa and a more than a handful grandmother, with whom I would be forced to share my bedroom later after my grandpa passed away. The entire family was very orthodox and had a few beliefs which even now I cannot comprehend. One such belief was that pets tend to indicate omens, most of the times bad and as such barred from being kept. Dogs, for example, it is believed, have the ability to see ghosts and a poor dog sulking is an indication of a major catastrophe to somebody in the house. With all these omens and beliefs pets are generally barred in an orthodox Brahmin family.

 

The arrival of these little ones gave me immense joy. I literally stopped using my alarm clock as these little ones were a natural alarm. They would start making noises well before 6 AM and wake me up. This ensured that I was never late for my morning tuitions and even to school. These birds were an additional bonus on Saturdays when school used to begin early. The birds were active in the evenings as well when I came back from school at around 4.00 PM. These little ones were slowly becoming a part of my life.  I was amazed at the discipline of these birds. They had a natural sense of time which I, even with two clocks and one imported, in my room did not have. I spent time observing them on a Sunday. The mother fed them in regular equal intervals. The father brought home the food at regular timings as well. The birds were back in their nest as soon as it was dark. They were off into slumber pretty early and so did I, not to disturb them with the light in my room. I woke up with them each morning. I was early to bed and early to rise. This brought in a remarkable change in me and I became more alive and active. I could also pass a fairly tough GK test during this time and win a prize at school because I sat preparing for it early in the morning. To top it all off I got fairly less amount of scolding from my parents.

 

I also found a unique way of communicating with them. I saw that if I could imitate the noises that they make, they would respond to me back. That was immense fun. I would imitate their noises all evening and they would respond back. My mother sometimes used to feed the mother sparrow with grains and other stuff and made her feel at home. I, mom and even dad were happy with the presence of these birds.

 

Then suddenly, after around 20 days, the weather changed. It stopped raining and we had a brief spell of warm weather. The sun was out shining. The little ones were grown up and were a lot active. One morning I went to school as usual after saying bye to the little ones but when I came back the birds were gone. So was the nest. I was shocked and dismayed. I checked all the other windows just to see whether the birds had shifted base. They were nowhere to be seen. I almost felt like being cheated and was almost crying. Dad was the first to come home and I told him what had happened. His response was that the birds were grown up and had gone away to continue living their life and that this phenomenon was natural. Mom told me the same thing and added that this was a life cycle. I calmed down somewhat, but I was surely missing the sweet noises. I woke up really late the next day. My tuition teacher scolded me for being late and I had to cut a sorry figure before the principal at school for being late to school as well. After a few days I was returned to normalcy and was back being myself. My mother called out and pointed me to a group of sparrows sitting on a wire very close to our balcony. I had absolutely no doubt that they were the same ones who had built their nest at my window. All of them were grown up now. They all flew one after another to lead their own life.

 

I remember those days every time I look up in the sky and see no sparrows, which have suddenly disappeared. Some say it is because trees have been cut down to make way for buildings and widening of roads and some say it is because of the mobile signals present in the atmosphere which are getting stronger by the day with the introduction of new technology in mobile communications. Whatever the reason maybe, I am certainly looking forward for a solution to all these when we can have our good old birds back to where they belong, in the sky above us.

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