World House Sparrow Day

‘ March 20 declared as World House Sparrow Day ’, I read it in an article in The Hindu. So I suddenly remembered sparrows. Memoirs of those little birds flashed across my mind.

Sparrows were one of the first living creatures that wished a good morning whenever I woke up early. When I was young and waking up early was a habit, without bird chirpings,it was never a morning for me. Tens of sparrows would come on to the roof of our house every morning to drink fresh and pure water that overflowed from the tank. It was always a beautiful sight watching them sing, dance and play as the golden morning sun reflected and refracted in the water on the floor. And whenever, as a child, I went to feed them with grains and if possible catch one of them, they would flee leaving me with an elusive aim of catching a sparrow at least once in a life time. In the evenings they would all come again, sit on the old jasmine tree that grew in our house,discuss among themselves and rest inside the inner branches. It was one fine summer day when my parents decided to get the house painted and so they arranged for a painter. “ The jasmine tree has to be cut down sir, otherwise I cannot paint”, he declared. Cutting down the tree meant demolishing the home of the sparrows . “ Is there no other way out ?” . “Don’t worry sir, even if you chop a tree it will grow back.You will see it before your eyes again in no time”. Chopping didn’t take much time nor did the painting work. It was evening again and the sparrows returned. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They couldn’t believe they were homeless. They were chirping at the loudest or is it they were shouting, as if “ Who are these humans to destroy our homes? Is it not our home? What right have they got to take away our home? Don’t we have a right to live on this planet? What have we done to you?”. Questions were useless for there were no answers and damage had been done.

Habits changed and so did I. Our house changed and so did everything. The sparrows never returned to remind me and so I never thought about them anymore. Springs returned, leaves grew on the tree, but it could attract sparrows never again.

I came back into the article and read the next sentence ‘ The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included the common house sparrow in the red list of highly endangered species '. For a moment my stomach twitched and I cursed humans and more so myself, even I’m a human. What remained with me was a guilty feeling and few memories.


“Will you ever return O’ little bird? I want to be your friend once again. Will you ever forgive me?”


If you have read this article and feel conserving sparrows is very important(and wonder how you can contribute), please visit the website : www.natureforever.org