Here are the ingredients for my enjoyable day out:
1. Friend / great company: SeemaThat's Jayaben and I. We regularly go to sit in the garden by the seaside. Today it was raining and was beautiful. V and N gave a surprise by joining us here :)
Thanks Vajubhai!
Today is WorldSparrowDay. I am doing my bit by purchasing a couple more sparrow houses or sparrow feeders to keep in our building garden. I already have one sparrow house outside my room window, and one sparrow feeder outside the hall window. My neighbour loves watching the birds feed, so she's a
lso asked me to order one for her :).
House sparrows today are very few thanks to the pollution and hardly any greenery in cities. We can do little inexpensive things like these to help them survive. Besides, it's also fun to have to have them around.
Nashik based (NatureForever.org) can send you really affordable sparrow houses/feeders.
I remember when I was a kid, my dad used to feed grains to the sparrows everyday, and they came in large groups. In the monsoons yellow sparrows migrated over for the season, which I haven't seen for many years. These cute coochie birds used to come in our courtyard and it was a lovely to see them chirping doing cheen cheen all around :). Nowadays they are rarely to be seen and that too very few, especially in Bombay.
Recently, I read an article about a gentleman in the papers, Mohammad Dilawar in Nashik, who has dedicated himself to saving the sparrows. As part of his initiative, he sells sparrow feeders and nest boxes at a no-profit, no-loss basis.
It seemed like the very thing that I was waiting for, so immediately ordered for one of each. I have placed the feeder outside the window, waiting now for sparrows to discover it. Called the carpenter to fix the nest box, so I'll post again when they move in :D :D.
Check out the photos...
Mohammad Dilawar's website: http://natureforever.org
An article about him in Time Magazine: http://goo.gl/x47XG
Both V and I used to hardly drink enough water every day. We’ve tried many times to schedule this, made rules, made charts, but never happened. When we felt low on energy, we suddenly realized that we hadn’t had water since many hours! N pointed out that conserving water this way will not Save the Planet.
So she devised a simple strategy to correct this; she introduced the ‘Watering Call’. Every time anyone in the family drinks water, he/she has to ring the bell kept near the ‘Maatlu’. It’s worked really really well! It’s a fun way to bring everyone in the house together, and rehydrate. Doubly refreshing.
Now there are some side-effects too, good ones. The neighbors can hear this Watering Call, and also rehydrate themselves. When we meet next, they tell us thanks :)
