The house sparrow

There was a report saying that the house sparrow has been added to the endangered list - it is a shame that a bird so abundant in our growing up days has reduced so much in number.
 After reading the report it stuck me that I had not seen those birds for a long time - these were the birds with which we grew up in a small town called Rourkela. There was a time when if somebody mentioned the word bird - sparrow was what came to mind.

 They were companions through the whole day - the excited morning chirping to the lazy afternoon chirping and then again the maddening buzz of their home coming in the evenings.

I could hear them ( if not see them) in the mornings when I got up to get ready for school....in the afternoons when I was standing outside the classroom as a part of punishment....they almost took part in the games that we played after the school.

Strange, that they slowly diminished and then vanished from our lives and I am taking note of it just now ....This is what we have made of ourselves ...we have become so oblivious to our immediate surroundings that it took me almost 20 years to notice the fact that these childhood friends of mine have gone by. Their complaints and the struggle so un-seen, so unfelt...and so unheard.