Coffee Nirvana

(Image courtesy: www.natureforever.org)

I’m one of the fortunate few who can sit in front of the computer but not in a tiny spaced cubicle in an artificially created weather. As I write now, I face the small patch, which I call my garden, in the backyard of my house watching many birds – robins, tits, crows, pigeons – chirping and cawing. Its meal time for them and the rains have brought them good harvest.

Surprisingly, I haven’t seen even one sparrow until now. Where have they gone? I remember in the eighties there was a huge rainfall with hailstorms. As kids we kept small buckets and pans to catch some of them. I recall spotting a sparrow in the small corner of the ventilator space, hiding, since it was too stormy for it to fly home.

There were many sparrows in the city in the eighties. One custom that every middle class brahminical house performed was feeding the birds before having lunch. My mother would hand me a ladle of freshly cooked rice and say, ‘Kakaku vechuttu vaa’ (give it to the crows). Once the crow had its fill, I’d always spot a sparrow nibbling on the grains. Our lunch was always after this ritual. No one has follows it today and the sparrows too have disappeared.

So it was a pleasant surprise to when I happened to click on this link which talks about conservation of house sparrows. I also learnt the reasons for the decline.

To quote from the website, “Today, we no longer find horse carriages (tanga) which were once the main mode of transport in urban areas; they have been replaced by cars. We also no longer find women sitting outside the house and cleaning grains because today, people get flour and grains in pre-cleaned and packed packets which they buy from malls where our winged friends are not able to go.”
If you have a small balcony, keep a feeder or atleast a plate of clean grains or freshly cooked rice and a bowl of clean water. Just avoid salted nuts or grains or oily food. You might get some winged guests flying in.

I intend to start the bird feeding ritual as in my younger days. I hope to see the sparrows return soon.