Common House Sparrow is the most widely distributed wild bird
Some of my earliest memories are of my ‘paati’ – my mother’s mother – who brought me up as much as my parents. Bengaluru was a sleepy town, still unaware of the traffic and IT madness that would take over later. My parents would drop me off, still asleep, at my grandmother’s place before they headed to work. I would wake up an hour or so after they had left and drag myself to my paati for a snuggle.
Invariably, she would be sitting near the doorstep of the house, cleaning the rice for the day and throwing the husk or un-cleaned paddy to the sparrows that came to the porch. They seemed to have a routine of their own – my paati and the sparrows. They would hang around while she cleaned the rice, tentatively coming closer at the prospect for fresh paddy. My paati would be singing softly as she went about her chore.
The days when she wasn’t at home, they would hover around, call a few times and then fly away. There were also days when little ones, with beaks still pink, were brought by proud sparrow parents. They were probably being trained in foraging for food, but I would like to believe that they were brought to show off to my paati.
Sparrow population has been declining partly because of human activities
Years passed, school, college and then job took over. Somewhere along the way, old age claimed my paati. It was around that time I read an article in a local newspaper in Bengaluru that bemoaned the loss of the city sparrows. Somehow, Bengaluru had lost its gubbachis – its sparrows. You could blame it on the lack of time for people to even throw a few grains of paddy for them or for the lack of space with new construction that didn’t allow them to nest. Whatever the reason, the little birds had fled my city and all we could do was make some noise about it.
I remember a friend who had recently moved to Bengaluru taking her son for a day out to a village a few hours journey from the city. She called to tell me that the three-year-old had pointed out, “Mamma, look at that little brown bird! It’s cute!” She was shocked at the realization that what her son had pointed out was a common sparrow – something that all of us had taken for granted while growing up.
There was much hue-and-cry over the lack of sparrows in the city. A movie, Gubbachigalu, even won the National Award for Best Children’s Film in 2008. Sparrow huts became a common add-on at handicraft exhibitions for environmentally friendly people.
But the sparrow is still elusive in Bengaluru.
Due to their perceived lustfulness, ancient Greeks associated sparrows with Aphrodite, the goddess of love
At home, my mother puts out a few grains every day in various strategic spots in the hope that she can lure a few birds to nest close by. Crows have come and so have warblers and once, even a barbet. Last month, my mother’s efforts finally paid off when she excitedly called to say that she saw a sparrow picking at the grains. It returned for a week but not since. My mother still keeps a look out for the sparrow.
As for me, I miss the sparrows as much as I miss my paati. They are intertwined in my memory and I can only hope my paati is in a place where she is feeding lots of sparrows and the sparrows are still showing off their young ones to her.
(March 20 is World Sparrow Day and we hope that the sparrows revive from the rarity they have become to no longer warrant a special day. How can we get our sparrows back? Leave your comments below)