Shreejata Gupta - Champadali More, Barasat Barasat West Bengal

Flocks of sparrows chirped all day, sitting along the electricity cables running below our balcony. My mother and I spent afternoons observing them. Every year, a pair used to nest in our kitchen. The busy parents had hectic days bringing in hay and twigs to build the nest, eventually bugs and worms when the chicks fledged. After a hard day's work, they surely didn't want to be disturbed after dusk, which invariably forced Mother to cook dinner in candle-light. Exciting times they were! They stopped visiting us about five years ago, neither have I seen many sparrows in the locality lately.