My newspaper reading was interrupted by a thud and a crashing sound, one following the other in quick succession, as I saw a vase coming down to rest on the floor after enduring a fall from the table. Next my eyes caught sight of a fallen sparrow, which obviously had suffered a lethal blow from the rotating blades of the ceiling fan. It was a female sparrow and the first thoughts coming to my mind was ‘good riddance’ but as I picked up the dead bird, my heart was filled with pity. Although I am neither an ornithologist nor a great lover of birds but the sparrows taking shelter in my house compelled me to pay attention to their behaviours.

Soon after we had moved into that rented house which had been lying vacant for a couple of years, all uninvited guests – spiders, lizards, rats, cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes and scores of other visible and barely visible tiny insects followed by a couple of pairs of sparrows wanted to share my accommodation. Barring the sparrows all other creatures came to an amicable settlement and chose their corners and crevices for their habitat. 

After prolonged discussions and arguments, the site selection for the nest building was over for the sparrows. One pair had chosen a site on the hook of the ceiling fan and the other over an unused shelf in the other room. Soon, they began to accumulate thistles, small dead branches of shrubs, threads and feathers amid a lot of chattering. When they started to litter my house with their building materials, I had to put my foot down. Chasing them away is certainly an exercise. They exit from one window and come back through another. After a few days of chasing them around and repeated demolition of their unauthorized constructions, the sparrows gave up and I thought I had triumphed.

     After a few days, one fine morning, I noticed a pair of sparrows chattering continuously upon sighting me. A while later the reason was evident. They had earlier retreated from their selected sites from where I had chased them away but had selected another site inside the electric meter box and had worked quickly. There was no doubt that it was the same pair, as I had identified the female bird that had a distinguishing limp. May be they had adopted diversionary tactics when I was going after them inside the house or when I was away since my wife would not mind them.

     The sounds coming out of the nest was of a couple of newly hatched young sparrows. The adult sparrows have probably read some human psychology and knew that once the young ones appear, the humans may not want to use their bulldozers (brooms and sticks) to destroy, demolish their habitats. The young ones’ sounds would cease when they heard the warning from their mom and pop who would chatter continuously upon seeing me. May be they were cursing me at the same time telling their chicks to remain quiet as the danger was near. Again it was harassment as the sparrows went on feeding spree to their chicks and in this process, dropped more of crawling creatures and other insects inside the house.

For some compelling reasons, I had to shift my residence again. At the new place too, as soon as we moved in, a pair of sparrows flew in and began their frantic search for a suitable place to build their nest. They consulted between themselves in hushed tones perched over the tube light, over a wooden box on a shelf, hooks of the ceiling fans etc. They pondered over the safety aspect too as cats and rats were frequently sighted inside the house, occasionally a snake slithering in the bushes outside. Their nest had to be in some place above and safe. My shoo-shooing posed no problem to them as they completely ignored me with my threatening look. They seemed to know that man would kill the insects, rats and snakes with no compunction but would rarely hurt a bird.

     A small brown pigeon had built a nest and had laid two eggs high above over a ventilator. Since this pigeon was not a nuisance to us, we never disturbed it. As a matter of fact, I was eagerly waiting for the eggs to hatch and to see the fledglings. May be the sparrows perceived that and got jealous. My wife told me one evening after my return from the office that there was a lot of commotion in the afternoon as four to five sparrows were making a lot of noise. When she came out to inspect, she saw the shattered eggs of the pigeon lying on the floor and its nest partly hanging outside. She also noticed two sparrows there. She was sure the sparrows had damaged the nest and pushed down the eggs. My assumption was – the sparrows had sensed my being inequitable and had turned their ire on the poor pigeon.

     The sparrows continued to build their nest over the tube light fitting unsuccessfully as everything would fall off as soon as they are placed there. My advice fell on deaf ears and my shouting or chasing them away did not deter them either. Long ago, I had tried a trick of placing a mirror near the nest of the sparrows; they had seen their own reflection and had assumed that they had some rivals. Their nests forgotten, they had continuously pecked at the mirror. I tried that same trick again but it did not work now. Exasperated, I took out the tube light fitting and replaced with an incandescent lamp. The sparrows did not give up and a few days later I heard the chirping of young sparrows from another place.

     All this happened more than a decade ago. Now suddenly one fine morning, I remembered those sparrows and realized with a shock that they are no longer there. I went outside in the hope of just spotting one but not a single one was visible, neither flying around nor on the trees. I went to other places in the city, no sparrows in the residential areas. The favourite places for pigeons and sparrows are the railway platforms where they are usually found as abundant places suitable for their nest building are available but these birds are not found there also. Probably chased away from everywhere a la hutment dwellers.   People in Gujarat are partial to the pigeons as they feed them and make shelters for them. These birds are aplenty over there. Crows build nests in high places preferably over masts but as they are driven away from there also, no nests are found. Man has chased them away from masts and their homes (as I was doing) which was the favourite nesting place of sparrows. I also noticed that the crows, eagles and vultures are also not to be seen in the skies. (At least in the skies where I reside)  Some articles were there about the vultures’ dwindling numbers but I did not come across anything about crows and sparrows. It is time somebody took up these too.

     I received a gift article from my son's friend. It was a toy bird, which sings as you clap your hands. This artificial sound of a bird is the only one that is heard amidst the cacophony of man-made sounds (vehicle engines, horns, loud speakers playing music and of course the artificially created chirping of birds) in the city where I reside. May be very soon we all may hear only these and not the real ones.

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