I want to carry Sailaja's story further. It is a story of societal caring. We once had 3 sparrow fledglings with us who were orphaned. Ofcourse, our son Kanti and his father had to rescue them and as usual hand them over to me to feed and keep alive! So we had cordoned off a portion of the room and kept them in a little basket and I had to feed them every hour or so. They came to recognise my footsteps and would set up such a loud chirping as soon as I would come back from my clinic! Talk of "eating like a bird"! They want to be fed every few minutes! I don't know how but they managed to survive and grow well in time. There was a window next to the basket and the outside sparrows used to come and peep at them and fly away. They grew well and had wings. My husband, a pilot, used to give them flying practice in the room! Once they were flying around in the room, they strangely stopped eating from my hand and the outside sparrows started making such a clamour at the window calling out to these babies. We decided to see if we could let them go.

One morning we took them out into the garden and with a prayer on our lips set them free! When we were out with the babies all the neighbourhood sparrows gathered on the trees around. The babies took to the air and the crowd of adult sparrows escorted them from one branch to the other, went to the topmost branch and they all flew together over our heads as if to say goodbye and thank you and disappeared into the blue sky. What a joyful and at the same time a tender feeling in our minds!

So, friends, this is another example of how much we can learn from the birds and animals around us. There is a lot of wisdom in these so-called dumb creatures which we would do well to emulate. As I said earlier this story is about society caring for the young, even if the young are not their own.
Rani
Hyderabad