This year, March 20, was deemed or celebrated as the “World Sparrow Day.” I feel we should not celebrate but mourn this day. Indeed, the House Sparrow was once the most commonly found bird species in India’s cities and towns. A few decades ago, they even outnumbered the crows and pigeons. But now, they are hard to find and nearly extinct in my city.
As a little lad during the sixties, I lived with my parents in an old fashioned, tiled cottage in the city of Madras. One of the vivid memories of life in that cottage was waking up every morning to the happy chirping of the House Sparrows which inhabited the rafters and trusses holding up the roof of our house. They are adept at building their nests even in small spaces. I remember, they built their nest atop the old fashioned box built to cover the old electricity meter.
My Dad loved the house sparrows very much and considered their building nests in our house a good Omen. He would get worried if they did not turn up in our house by the end of every year and feel that bad luck would befall us during the forthcoming New Year.
The sparrows would come during winter and build their nests inside our house at several locations. By the beginning of spring, the little sparrows would hatch and the house would be filled with the sparrow parents flying to and fro to collect food for the young hatchlings.
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