Let’s leave this city,’ Mama tells Papa. ‘Our little ones will not be able to survive here. We are unable to find food, people have started living in closed spaces and we never find grains in the open. The dust makes me ill and there are choking air currents. Our friends have also left.’
Sparrows, Photo by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash
‘I can’t imagine where we would go. The neighbours are flying away as well,’ Papa replies, his grey- head with streaks of brown bobbing up and down. His bib turns blacker. The sparrow couple are perched on a dusty branch of a shrub. There are only two shrubs left in their neighbourhood now. The grassy, flowery gardens with open ventilated windows have been replaced by glass buildings and sealed windows, as central air-conditioning has overtaken water coolers. Everyone at home is working. They forget to keep grain seeds for their tiny friends, who have no clean water or food.
‘See that man, he has some weapon,’ she says, sighting a long pair hedge shears. ‘I think he is going to cut our home.’ The sparrows feel helpless, their little bodies can do nothing to combat the gigantic human coming towards them. ‘My eggs will be destroyed and we will never be able to have babies now,’ her little brown fluffy body is shaking with tears. ‘My babies, forgive me.’
The city is no longer safe, food is scarce, water is contaminated, air is polluted and mobile radiations are lethal. Friends and neighbours have flown the nest.
Papa eyes her with sadness. ‘Let’s fly away with our neighbours. I am sure together we can find a new home. We will make more babies there.’ Mama nods, weary as for years she had been eating the grains the old woman left for her. The old woman died a month ago and her children had sold the house to a builder. He was going to make a multi-storied apartment building here. There would be shops on the ground floor with parking in the basement. And the children would get their flat on the 3rd floor. They had forgotten their childhood friends—the sparrows.
As children, they would sit with their grandma in the garden. She would throw seeds of bajra and other grains in one corner and the garden would be full of birds. The sparrows would chirp the day through. Grandma had planted some shrubs, so the sparrows would make their nest there. Some would even find space between the windowsill and the water cooler. Others would fly into the house to make a nest in the fan. The family would shoo this couple away, after all, that was dangerous. The little birds could die when the fan was switched on.
But one sparrow couple refused to move. The family had to keep that room closed for months till the little ones could fly away. Every day, the children would leave some grains and water in the room. They watched the parents bring in insects and little berries for their children. They saw the first flight of the little baby, who chirped and hopped and skipped till he could fly. They saw one young one fall from the fan home and die on the floor. They buried it in the garden, feeling sorry for the parents. They even put flowers on the grave.
Sparrow enjoying spring, photo by Anastasiya Romanova on Unsplash
Grandma and the gardener had sown many flowery shrubs, some shrubs with berries also. The birds and butterflies always lived in their garden. Whenever grandma sat in the sun, the birds would sit around her. They used to have a long conversation. She would tell them about her village near the desert. She would tell them how blue the sky was and how clear the air was. She would tell them about the ants living in the earth, how the women always sang songs in the afternoon and kept leftover food for cattle and birds. There were cows, buffaloes, sheep, dogs, ducks there. The villagers did not have fans. There were little holes in their mud homes which allowed the air to come in. The birds could live in the small native shrubs.
The little brown birds would look at grandma intensely, trying to listen hard. But their attention would go to the grains and they would get busy with the flowers and the butterflies. They would sit and chirp and sometimes grandma would laugh with them.
‘I remember her,’ says Mama sparrow, nostalgically. ‘Remember, how she told us about her village near the desert. Let’s go there. We can breathe in the pure air, make nests in the native shrubs and the villagers will give us food. There are ants and berries there too.’ Papa sparrow agrees, his black bib going up and down in the hope of a beautiful home of their own—where they would be safe and from where the gigantic humans would not leave them out of their life, where they were counted and where they mattered, where they were not taken for granted.
‘I think they don’t notice us because we are so ordinary and common. We are also brown and we don’t have big bodies and big wings. We don’t have beautiful coloured beaks. We are simple birds adapted to city life and now, they don’t need us or value us,’ Mama and Papa nod in unison. ‘It’s time, we said goodbye to the city.’
Mama and Papa sparrow fly away. ‘It will take us a few days, but we will reach our new home with shrubs and insects and berries and grains.’
Sparrows enjoy their food with guests at Suryagarh, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, IndiaI saw sparrows live in harmony with humans in Jaisalmer. This was in 2017. Sadly, Delhi has forgotten the biodiversity that once thrived in the city. This short story is an ode to the little sparrow who was a part of my early life. Like the sparrow, I too will perish but I hope humans realise that we must cherish every little life and colour we see on Earth.
This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Mads’ Cookhouse.
😞😞😞 the bitter truth n reality of our times. I liked the idea of conveying the message from a bird’s perspective Ambica… it really worked for me.
When we were growing up, there were many sparrows in the neighborhood but one day, suddenly, there were none. We realized it was because of the cell phone tower that had been built in a neighbour’s house. Thankfully everyone objected to it for other reasons as well and it was demolished… and now the sparrows are back😊. Well, my hometown is Darjeeling so touchwood it is still green to a large extent n we get to see a wide variety of birds.
This is so heart touching. When you compare times to the olden days, there was so much love between human and nature. Modernization has made people forget about how it feels to breathe pollution free air, the chirping of birds. Im glad inspite of being connected to the city my side of area gives me the experience of olden days as well.
Extremely unfortunate but true! Sparrows have become so scarce now. In our old place we hardly saw any sparrows there was so much of crowded construction there. We soon shifted to a more open area and now we have kept water in our balcony and a tulsi plant which is filled with sparrows in the morning. It is so satisfying to watch the little birdies come and have a family feast in our plant.
I’ve grown up in such a lush and green environment and am happy that post marriage I’ve managed to create a small but beautiful garden around my humble abode. Its a joy to hear the tweets of the birds and the thought of them getting extinct is simply scary.
Truth but hard. I have seen sparrow in my balcony. We still have in our area. But construction going on so speedy I afraid there will be no sparrow like greenary is affecting. Hope human will understand this.
You took me back to my childhood. We had a huge neem tree and our house had a tiled roof with rafters. The sparrows would build their nest in our hall, lay eggs and I have seen them growing into beautiful sparrows. One fell down from the nest and I picked it up and tended to it, she couldnt fly and I had her with me. I didnt want to cage her, so I took her to the terrace and let her go. She was the fattest sparrow you have seen. I have not seen any sparrows in my city since 20 years but just two days ago I spotted a few right outside the city and I stopped to cherish them. I even shared it on twitter today.
Ambica, I grew up in a city in Bengal where in our house right above the fuse box board there was a permanent nest made by the sparrows. I have see the birth of so many Sparrow babies and how they grew up and fly away. Sometime the young born sparrows are so small that they used to fall from the nest to the ground. My mom or dad used to pick up the baby to place it right back on the nest. Do you know when their mommies were not at home my dad used to fed them water and grains as out of hunger they used to scream loud. I spent my childhood with many sparrows and your story narrated the true picture as now in NCR no more I can see the sparrows. Well penned beautiful story
Such a touching story. I have loved sparrows too so I totally feel your dismay. They used to come in our balcony and chirp in the morning when I small, waking me up. Yes Delhi NCR no more has these cute little birds. It’s really really sad. I miss them terribly.
Sparrows were plenty in my childhood. But now Banglore doesn’t have any I think or atleast I haven’t seen one. Strangely I did see a few in the airport before COVID!
Very beautifully conveyed msg. The price that other species pay in the name of development by humans.
I don’t know how many species of the Animal kingdom got affected by us the humans. At least the birds would find a better home in the warmth of mother nature.
This post reminded me of our home in Kolkata and how my parents used to keep food for the birds. Now the house is locked after mummy’s passing away. I somehow feel the sparrows there must be talking like this too. This touched my heart!!
What a lovely and heartwarming story! It reminds us of the simple pleasures in life…. enjoying the beauty of nature and connecting with other living beings. The relationship between grandma and the birds reminds me of my childhood days when we used to visit our grandma’s place and watch sparrows and their nest in our garden.
This is the bitter truth, Ambica. Beautifully written. Barely see any sparrows around, or even crows for that matter. All said and done, humans have forgotten to co-exist with the animal kingdom.
I applaud you for being the voice of those sparrows who could never be able to speak their hearts out. This is so true and it’s a pity that its happening all over the world.
Lovely story and so true. I remember Ambala Cantt railway station in 1980s. In the evening there used to be so many kalcheets that you couldn’t even hear one next to you. Now sparrows, crows, kalcheets, they are almost gone.
This story is so powerful it truly broke my heart. I feel this so much – we humans have taken a world that belongs to so many living beings without mercy
When you flow like water, every rock is penetrable. Writing is serendipity. I did not plan a career in journalism 25 years back. And I did not plan on starting a blog either or learning photography and videography. I just follow the course that life sets for me and I share all those stories through words, visuals and videos on the blog. Happy reading!
View all posts by Ambica Gulati
Queen of Treasures 
Heartfelt story Ambica. A story which must have been truth to many a sparrow families.
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Yes, and so many other species who have left us because of neglect and ignorance.
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😞😞😞 the bitter truth n reality of our times. I liked the idea of conveying the message from a bird’s perspective Ambica… it really worked for me.
When we were growing up, there were many sparrows in the neighborhood but one day, suddenly, there were none. We realized it was because of the cell phone tower that had been built in a neighbour’s house. Thankfully everyone objected to it for other reasons as well and it was demolished… and now the sparrows are back😊. Well, my hometown is Darjeeling so touchwood it is still green to a large extent n we get to see a wide variety of birds.
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You are fortunate to be living in a green place. I would like to migrate to somewhere more green too.
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I live in Bangalore Ambica😀 but I am going home on monday for 7 weeks… summer holidays for kids.
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This is so heart touching. When you compare times to the olden days, there was so much love between human and nature. Modernization has made people forget about how it feels to breathe pollution free air, the chirping of birds. Im glad inspite of being connected to the city my side of area gives me the experience of olden days as well.
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That’s so lovely, you remain in touch with the natural world.
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Extremely unfortunate but true! Sparrows have become so scarce now. In our old place we hardly saw any sparrows there was so much of crowded construction there. We soon shifted to a more open area and now we have kept water in our balcony and a tulsi plant which is filled with sparrows in the morning. It is so satisfying to watch the little birdies come and have a family feast in our plant.
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That would be a lovely morning with birds.
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I’ve grown up in such a lush and green environment and am happy that post marriage I’ve managed to create a small but beautiful garden around my humble abode. Its a joy to hear the tweets of the birds and the thought of them getting extinct is simply scary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Truth but hard. I have seen sparrow in my balcony. We still have in our area. But construction going on so speedy I afraid there will be no sparrow like greenary is affecting. Hope human will understand this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You took me back to my childhood. We had a huge neem tree and our house had a tiled roof with rafters. The sparrows would build their nest in our hall, lay eggs and I have seen them growing into beautiful sparrows. One fell down from the nest and I picked it up and tended to it, she couldnt fly and I had her with me. I didnt want to cage her, so I took her to the terrace and let her go. She was the fattest sparrow you have seen. I have not seen any sparrows in my city since 20 years but just two days ago I spotted a few right outside the city and I stopped to cherish them. I even shared it on twitter today.
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How beautiful that you got to look after such a little bird.
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Ambica, I grew up in a city in Bengal where in our house right above the fuse box board there was a permanent nest made by the sparrows. I have see the birth of so many Sparrow babies and how they grew up and fly away. Sometime the young born sparrows are so small that they used to fall from the nest to the ground. My mom or dad used to pick up the baby to place it right back on the nest. Do you know when their mommies were not at home my dad used to fed them water and grains as out of hunger they used to scream loud. I spent my childhood with many sparrows and your story narrated the true picture as now in NCR no more I can see the sparrows. Well penned beautiful story
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It must have been a lovely experience. I remember them making nests in our fans and we had to stop using it. All life matters
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Such a touching story. I have loved sparrows too so I totally feel your dismay. They used to come in our balcony and chirp in the morning when I small, waking me up. Yes Delhi NCR no more has these cute little birds. It’s really really sad. I miss them terribly.
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Sparrows were plenty in my childhood. But now Banglore doesn’t have any I think or atleast I haven’t seen one. Strangely I did see a few in the airport before COVID!
Very beautifully conveyed msg. The price that other species pay in the name of development by humans.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t know how many species of the Animal kingdom got affected by us the humans. At least the birds would find a better home in the warmth of mother nature.
LikeLike
This post reminded me of our home in Kolkata and how my parents used to keep food for the birds. Now the house is locked after mummy’s passing away. I somehow feel the sparrows there must be talking like this too. This touched my heart!!
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It’s nice to know that your parents left food and water for the birds.
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What a lovely and heartwarming story! It reminds us of the simple pleasures in life…. enjoying the beauty of nature and connecting with other living beings. The relationship between grandma and the birds reminds me of my childhood days when we used to visit our grandma’s place and watch sparrows and their nest in our garden.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is the bitter truth, Ambica. Beautifully written. Barely see any sparrows around, or even crows for that matter. All said and done, humans have forgotten to co-exist with the animal kingdom.
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I applaud you for being the voice of those sparrows who could never be able to speak their hearts out. This is so true and it’s a pity that its happening all over the world.
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Lovely story and so true. I remember Ambala Cantt railway station in 1980s. In the evening there used to be so many kalcheets that you couldn’t even hear one next to you. Now sparrows, crows, kalcheets, they are almost gone.
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Yes. We are blindly throwing them out of our lives.
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This story is so powerful it truly broke my heart. I feel this so much – we humans have taken a world that belongs to so many living beings without mercy
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A sad story with a very poignant message.
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