World Sparrow Day

Summer afternoons with a tired mom, elderly grandpa and irritable older sister left me lonely…well almost. This is a kuruvi kadhai (sparrow story) on World Sparrow Day. It was the sparrow that kept me fully occupied those humid, boring afternoons. At first, Amma Sparrow built a nest above our big heater in the bathroom. Namma Ooru Summer meant that no heater was ever switched on. So we had bits and pieces of those brown sticks and twigs from the nest regularly falling on our heads. It didn’t help my curly shock of hair one bit. The other problem was that the sparrow eggs were tender and tiny and likely to fall from their perch on the heater. Then, after a couple of eggs were ruined having accidentally rolled out of the nest onto the bathroom floor, the ladies of the house moved the nest carefully to our long, wide verandah. Amma Sparrow didn’t seem to object. Soon we had a few baby fledglings. Those baby sparrows were simply delightful. And they kept me out of the way of the angry Akka, snoozing Thatha and busybee Amma. Two of them managed to gain independence really fast. The 3 rd was a bit slow but tried her best. She became my playmate. There was a drain hole in the floor of the verandah that seemed clogged towards the outlet. It was like a tunnel for the baby sparrow, and am sure she could see the light at the end of it. This baby sparrow couldn’t fly yet but clearly felt ready for some exploration. So, she would try to scuttle into the drain hole. I was terribly worried that she would get stuck there or worse, fall out of the drainhole from the first floor. So, I would put my two fingers in and gently grasp her teeny tail and tug her back out. She would then look a bit confused and again waddle into the hole trying to stuff her tiny body right in before I could catch her tail. But I would always make it in time to tug her back out, tail first, with her expression of resignation still fresh in my mind. I would then happily cradle her soft furry body in my palms before letting her loose to try her luck in the clogged drain hole again. This was our game. It was a never ending one. Rather like this post :-P 
True story. Love sparrows.