Nodded, noting house sparrows on Sunday morning; taps of beaks on stainless steel plate; woke up. A kiss, a hum or a Bang? At Marine Drive, Brahma was scratching a mosquito-run face. A creator regretting a creation. Sometimes an Arabian Sea wind displaced them, but never forever. Playing with the last clod of earth and grass, Brahma and wife were thinking of the last roll, throw. Somethig nobody will bother about. That's how the House Sparrow came. The quintessential back-bencher; no aspiration to be a middle or front bencher; a non-competitor; made of meat none relished, animal or human; a queak of a call; a birth comfy in ancient pattanams (cities), content with holes in walls, car honks, human loudness; Brahma and wife at simple best. Passer domesticus has a corner on the window platform, near two bottles of money plants. By about 6.30 a.m. they make the first squeaks, hop on steel grills of the window, wait impatiently; for a steel plate of broken Marie buiscuits and bits of fresh rotis baked by Rama; seem to have no objection to grey necks sharing their breakfast; me is not sure of crows; they disappear to come back by 4 in the evening and then a night rest. A week now of house sparrow watching. House sparrow populations are thinning; not to be seen in cities; they can be easily spotted in Borivili though that may not suffice wild lifers; and what is a healthy number me does not know; on a morning me has counted five first visitors; then am confused as one house sparrow is like the other; the male has a dark spot on its neck; the female has none (me guess). Funny, God being a male chauvinist when it is animals: colouring males in wild life and discolouring females; a feminist when it is humans; women being better than males. Vidya has not seen house sparrows in Valsarvakkam, Chennai; there are few experts on this fellow. Who cares for back benchers with failed report cards? Salim Ali in The Book of Indian Birds is quite liberal with Passer domesticus. Dubs him and her, ' a confirmed hanger-on of man, in hills and plains alike, whether in a bustling noisy city or outlying hamlet.' In Zoo in the Garden, Edward Hamilton Aitken (EHA) disappoints. 'Sparrow is a cosmopolitan ...It is a vulgar little body, which tries to be a gentleman and attains to being a gent. In dress it affects smartness and in manners gentility.In the company of ladies it becomes a masher. Nevertheless, I like the little Sparrow out of doors.' Me likes me house sparrows on the window.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Passer domesticus
Nodded, noting house sparrows on Sunday morning; taps of beaks on stainless steel plate; woke up. A kiss, a hum or a Bang? At Marine Drive, Brahma was scratching a mosquito-run face. A creator regretting a creation. Sometimes an Arabian Sea wind displaced them, but never forever. Playing with the last clod of earth and grass, Brahma and wife were thinking of the last roll, throw. Somethig nobody will bother about. That's how the House Sparrow came. The quintessential back-bencher; no aspiration to be a middle or front bencher; a non-competitor; made of meat none relished, animal or human; a queak of a call; a birth comfy in ancient pattanams (cities), content with holes in walls, car honks, human loudness; Brahma and wife at simple best. Passer domesticus has a corner on the window platform, near two bottles of money plants. By about 6.30 a.m. they make the first squeaks, hop on steel grills of the window, wait impatiently; for a steel plate of broken Marie buiscuits and bits of fresh rotis baked by Rama; seem to have no objection to grey necks sharing their breakfast; me is not sure of crows; they disappear to come back by 4 in the evening and then a night rest. A week now of house sparrow watching. House sparrow populations are thinning; not to be seen in cities; they can be easily spotted in Borivili though that may not suffice wild lifers; and what is a healthy number me does not know; on a morning me has counted five first visitors; then am confused as one house sparrow is like the other; the male has a dark spot on its neck; the female has none (me guess). Funny, God being a male chauvinist when it is animals: colouring males in wild life and discolouring females; a feminist when it is humans; women being better than males. Vidya has not seen house sparrows in Valsarvakkam, Chennai; there are few experts on this fellow. Who cares for back benchers with failed report cards? Salim Ali in The Book of Indian Birds is quite liberal with Passer domesticus. Dubs him and her, ' a confirmed hanger-on of man, in hills and plains alike, whether in a bustling noisy city or outlying hamlet.' In Zoo in the Garden, Edward Hamilton Aitken (EHA) disappoints. 'Sparrow is a cosmopolitan ...It is a vulgar little body, which tries to be a gentleman and attains to being a gent. In dress it affects smartness and in manners gentility.In the company of ladies it becomes a masher. Nevertheless, I like the little Sparrow out of doors.' Me likes me house sparrows on the window.
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