It was quite dark after the twilight hour. I was pacing the courtyard speaking over my mobile. Some movement from the dark area of the lawn caught my attention. A small fluffy cotton ball like thing was moving towards me. It was rather moving towards the light. It was a sparrow chick. I tried to touch it. It moved away towards some other trees nearby and I left it alone, wondering how it had landed there and why it was alone.
I called my daughter. She immediately went near it and showed her finger. The chick promptly got on her finger.
She took it into the house, put it in a small bamboo basket with some cloth, etc to make it like a nest. She then fed it with some milk using an ink filler. The chick was very happy and even jumped out of the basket and started going around the house. Then in the night, she was again put into the basket and closed and kept in a dark place.
Next day morning, there was a lot of noise of sparrows chirping in the house. It was slightly more than on the other days.
I took the basket and kept it outside in such a way the other birds could see and if identified, they could take the chick away with them.
They came and inspected the basket. Then the chick reluctantly got up, shook itself and jumped out of the basket.
The whole of the day, the chick was roaming around in the compound of the house among the trees and plants. The other sparrows always were around keeping turns. One of the sparrows looked like their leader. It was quite larger than others, stout and commanding.
I was watching how they will manage to take the chick with them.
When evening came, the other sparrows, they would be around ten in number, took the chick to a corner in the compound and started demonstrating in turns how to fly from the ground to the top of the compound wall. I could feel their anxiety. The chick helplessly looked at her elders demonstrate a rare feat. Then after some time, it tried. It could fly up only by one feet. After four or five attempts, she was not able to do anything more. I could feel a sense of despondency among them. My heart felt heavy. All of us wanted her to be able to fly off. But she could not. Then as darkness started descending, one by one of her family members left. She was all alone. It was heart wrenching to see her look around with no one around.
I tried to catch her and once again put her in the basket to keep her safe for the night. When I caught her, she forcefully escaped from my hands. Again I called my daughter. She promptly took her and put her in a larger basket this time.
Next day again in the morning we released her to her family. That day evening, when the same demonstration took place, this time in another corner of the compound, the chick could manage to rise up to two feet. But still the compound wall was six feet high. The evening again descended into darkness and her family had to once again abandon her. Again she was brought into the basket for safety.
The next day, after she was released in the morning and she was roaming amidst the trees and plants as usual, in the compound, suddenly in the noon, some of the sparrows started making a big noise. There was ruffled flying here and there. Sparrows were flying to a tree and flying back and forth making a lot of noise. Then the leader of the group came and sat on the compound wall facing me, since I was sitting in the sit out reading something and continuously chirped in a hysterical tone. I thought something was amiss and after ascertaining that the chick was safe, under a tree, took a look around the compound. Then I found that a cat was just then entering the compound on the diagonally opposite corner. I just watched the cat. She elegantly walked on the compound wall and when near me, looked at me for some time. I did not want her to jump into our compound. After some moments, I showed her with my hand that she can go to the next compound. After pausing for some seconds, she walked past me and crossed over to the neighboring compound wall. But she lay there for almost ten minutes. I patiently waited and after she left, I also came away and resumed my reading.
The leader of the group came and sat before me in the same place on the compound wall where she had perched earlier and made a chirp and flapped her wings as if saying thank you. And she flew away.
This gesture was really a marvelous one. I could not believe.
That evening again they were trying to make the chick fly. After some time, suddenly I heard a lot of noise and all chirping noise had disappeared into a distance. I was worried that something untoward had happened. I searched the entire compound. The chick was not to be found.
As I again sat on my chair in the portico brooding as to what would have happened, the leader sparrow once again came and perched in the same spot and chirped something fast and showed some action with her wings and flew away to a neighboring plot. I understood that she told me that the chick had flown away. From among the shrubs in the neighboring plot, I could hear their chirping and could see their frenzied flying activities.
After four or five days, one morning again all of them came and made a lot of chirping noise. One of them, I could identify with the smallest tail as the chick which had been our guest for three nights. Once I recognised her, they all made some chirping noise and left.
And we think only humans invented culture.
