The hanging sparrow

By  Prof Ghulam Mohyuddin Wani BVSC&AH,MVSC,ARS,DVM,PhD

Early morning of April 13, 2010, sparrows chirp and sing. I can hear them singing or speaking. It appears as if they are chanting .How all these tiny sparrows rise early in the morning and are not sluggish like my companions in this house the maid and her mate. I have never seen sparrows sleeping during the day. They are working all the day from dawn to dusk. They live life and enjoy it without greed and creed .They is always in twos, Male and a female. Once their little tiny babies have wings to fly they are brave to have their own mate and built their own nest before they start breeding. Man has to learn a lot from these tiny birds.

I have yet to see them dying of hunger. They work hard and find their own food from the earth. Someone leaves a tiny piece of bread or a grain wasted in the soil. They search it and feed themselves and their tiny little baby birds till they are on their own wings. Here I am not writing some treatise on sparrows .If anyone wish so he may read the websites, we have plenty materials on them as encyclopedias and books. Here I wish to share with you a true story of

World Agony and Misery

Many years ago, I saw a male house sparrow hanging from a nylon thread .This thread was the remains of a cement bag used in the construction of our house we call home in the name of Bismillah Nishet.This small piece of thread culminated in hanging the sparrow. He then HE Sparrow was hanging from that nylon thread for many days .When I saw him ,first I wondered how some could hang him like it. His neck was knit in a knot made up of that little nylon thread. The thread was worn in a majestic fashion as if someone from the heavens has tied down that knot to take his life. The other end of the thread still fixed within two bricks and over shoot hanging outwards. Few days before I observed the hanging I heard many sparrows especially a small female sparrow making much noise at the site. Usually I hear them making such noise when our house cat makes her majestic morning walk through their or near their nests or when on some occasion they would fight among themselves on pity issues like humans. I have seen their fights between the mates, during mating but have never seen one male attempting to lure other female or vice-versa. To that extent I certify their mating based on pure love and not greed as of man. Rapes are uncommon among sparrows.Adultry and bestiality is unreported. Thus these tiny sparrows are the puritarian lots like that of mine .This is why they and I live in harmony sharing love and affection. This small little sparrow has been my unknown but chose companions  past 11 years of of solicitude and lonely abode

Coming back to our narration, I heard many sparrows especially one female among them making much noise at the site. I took it as usual for few days. On continuous sad tones coming from one lonely female sparrow, I got alarmed and looked around keenly and found a male sparrow hanging .I rushed to relieve him of the hang and aloss found him dead. Body was showing rigor mortis and I diagnosed it a corpse of few days. Exactly I was unable to tell, but relating the pathological conditions with the noise episode ,I concluded it as corpuses of three day old. I left his corpuses on the ground and saw all the sparrows coming smelling or checking him timidly fearing my presence nearby and running away with the diagnosis of his being dead saw female mate of the dead surrounding the body for a few moments till she a made it for sure he was no more alive. She immediately stopped those sad mourning tone and gave a lasting look towards me before leaving the corpse as if asking me to bury him down as a neighbour and co inhabitant in the house. Since then I never saw her again or perhaps I was unable to recognise her, but that little nest was never visited  by her again. Perhaps there were no eggs or awaiting younglings there and the curiosity still remains in me to know what happened to this lonely sparrow. Did someone meet her or she died too in isolation and loneliness. I suppose their love is more pure than higher mammals and may be an everlasting one.It always saw them together as couple and never alone .Does God help them to be born as pairs only or they too have struggling and competing males fighting for survival and lust.Todate, I have not seen lust in these fellow companions of mine in the house. The share consolidation of the female and leaving the dead after she made it sure her mate has died reminded me of the verse all belongs to God and all of us big or small ,tiny or strong has to die and join him one day. These birds knew them better than us the humans. We feel pain and eked at such departure perhaps because we do not have a faith on his creation and death regulatory mechanism. I wish I could be that little sparrow free of glut and sorrows of the past failures .

WHAT HAUNTS ME  EVEN AFTER 11 YEARS

What haunts me even after 11 years of this otherwise UN memorable episode of death of a house sparrow was my gluit.Had I cared for the sad noise of the sparrows on the very first day ,I could have helped them if not saved the life of that male. The male met his destiny and may be happy in the heavens, but I still cannot forget the agony and pain sustained by his companion. The poor she has to leave her nest as she never returned again, perhaps she could not bear to near the site of her dear ones death trap.

This agony and sorrow of the mate haunts me and reminds me of the neglect .Had I searched on the very day ,perhaps I could have lessened the agony of her mate if not saved him. The decision to leave her neatly built nest in my house as I cannot call it a home any more for two reasons. First I am not alone to live here, we have many little chipping birds ,cats and insects too sharing this house. Secondly as the sparrow left it for heavenly abode ,I at 61 years of age am also ready to join him any time .He had his mate to see he is buried with honour, I do  not have any knowledge to have someone like her to care on that occasion as the little sparrow has already abandoned my house and was never seen again. On the burial place of my dear friend the departed sparrow I planted an almond tree which never bloomed for all these years but this year thank God it has bloomed and I hope to taste its almond in the coming Autmn.Has she bloomed to remind to write this epitome or is she still annoyed on my neglect and wishes to remind me to take care of my journey to the heavens. Well my dear little sparrow I am ready to leave this house which we shared for  some time as home. My little friend forgave me as I am afraid to join you in the heaves for pretty two reasons.

FEAR TO ENTER HEAVENS.

I feel guilty of having killed you or at least neglected the call of your mate to help you for two reasons I fear I may not be able to enter the heavens and share with you the eternal bliss of the heaves.

Firsltly,the nylon thread an overhang of a piece of cement bag ,left by the mason of the bismillah nishat ,whom I hired to built the house shared by me along with a dozen or more sparrows who toiled hard to built their nests in the left holes and gaps of our house. Had that mason not left that thread hanging and stiffly fixed on one side, loose at other. Perhaps you could not have been trapped in it while playing with it or searching for some grit or food in it. This hanging thread which took the life of my friend was perhaps my negligence

Secondly, my neglect to search your corpse for the first few days is my glut .I is ashamed to face my lord who may question me. I  cannot cheat my LORD as I knew well since my childhood that when these little birds collective make some noise something is wrong somewhere. I was trained by my grandmother,(MAY GOD BLESS HER)that when you find such a noise it is an alarm and many times I heard them making this noise in the big Hawaii of my Grandmother .At all these occasions I saw some serpent/snake attacking their nested from the nearby Acacia trees of Malded whose vegetable garden used to be on the back of our grandmothers Hawali.Thus I have no answer to the neglect and crime I committed in ignoring the crying of my fellow inhabitants in agony.

Thirdly, I admit of not caring these tiny birds after the death of my mother, who used to care for them  caring and keep some grains of left over rice or other grains in a pan along with little water. I saw her regularly caring for them. Then I had my argument, we should not make them lazy. She would argue and make me speechless. Her argument was she makes them courageous to ask for their due in this universe. Her argument was pleasant. She would say well they have a share of theirs in this universe .They need a grain or two which is a negligible amount in comparison to what we waste and throw away to cause dirt and disease. The  placing a few grains of waste cleanly before them helps them to be fed hygienically as is their birth right of being our fellow live mates. This makes them daring and courageous of asking their pie in the universe with fear. We have used all barriers of red and glistering ribbons to whistle them away from our fields. We try to save a 2-3 % share of theirs but lose 20-30 % of our harvested grains through wastage during harvesting,storing,transporting,cooking and eating .Same is true of trees and water .We the humans have reversed the natural habitats and now fear of hunger and try to starve the whole universe for  few among us. This Nature of catch and snatch has to be abandoned by the humans .We has to realise the share of others big or small ,rich or poor, sick or healthy. This is the way to world peace. I curse myself having forgotten these true principles and not continuing the practices of my mother. Had I done it the poor Sparrow life could have been saved as he would have not struggled with the nylon thread for finding his food. I feel answerable for this ,as being a double PhD from India and Germany and claiming to be a born animal lover, how did I neglect the little mates in my house. Thus I sincerely apologise to my deceased and her mate for my negligence and I promise to make good for the rest of the inmates of my house henceforth.

This is little true story for the children who love birds. I wish my readers to correct ,edit or criticise it. I wish to ask those mighty who are killing hundreds of humans ,animals and birds every day for the sake of their superiority and show for  might. Might to destroy and kill not feed and heal. This story is my way to carry the move net of peace and environmental preservation.