On Sparrows and Crows

A cluttered balcony, I am rushing through to dry the laundry and fix breakfast

I feel the quiet presence of the crow, it perches on the ledge until I have dried the clothes and then caws, then there is the other one, which perches on the tree across and caws as if to make conversation until I toss out the bird feed, and interestingly the it has to be either a roti or bread, the birds don’t peck or pick anything else

One day I was unduly delayed, the crow hopped right into the dining area of  my house.

Another day my husband put out the bird feed and water the crow started cawing so rudely it was almost of as if it taking husband to task. Well he snapped back saying wait she will come to give you your feed, the crow stopped cawing as if to sulk, MrD just brought the bread back it took me good 15mnts to put the bread back, the crow perched patiently on the sill.

When I had my burns I was in isolation, the bed room is next to the balcony, the crow would actually perch on the window sill and sit quietly but sort of give me assurance people once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.

But the last one week, my crows are missing, and that worries me no end. I imagine the poor bird being electrocuted, or run over by a vehicle. Or maybe beheaded by a turning fan, like the poor sparrow was once.  Someone once said that you don’t have to be a crow to be a sparrow, well really not, because both have their role in biodiversity, both are our partners in the journey of the earth school.

Now I understand why Mr Mohammed Dilawar of Nashik decided to create the World Sparrow Day, to raise awareness of the house sparrow, the house sparrows are more or less extinct, but the number of crows are reducing steadily too.

By the way 20^th March commemorates the world sparrow day, an initiative of Nature forever society of India and Eco-sys Action foundation of France and numerous other national and international organizations across the world.

The idea is to earmark a day for the house sparrow to appreciate the beauty of the common biodiversity that we take so much for granted. This was initiated in 2010. It is also a platform where people who are working on the conservation of the house sparrow and other common birds can network, collaborate and exchange conservation ideas which will lead to better science and improved results.  It aims to provide a meeting ground for people from different parts of the world to come together and form a force that can play an important role in the advocacy and spreading the awareness on the need of conserving biodiversity.