I stayed at a homestay in Mt.Abu. It was a mere 500m from main bus stand where all the hustle and bustle exists. Yet it was amazingly peaceful.
The hosts were extremely welcoming. I was given a tall glass of hot milk at night daily (I think cause they liked me. 😃) The next day morning I went to the terrace to do my yoga routine. I noticed that there were trees all around the house almost felt like a forest. There were so many birds and so many species of them.
I am not a birdie so I don’t know to identify birds. But I saw Bulbuls, Parakeets, Sparrows and Kingfishers and many others I could not name. They were chirping and the place felt like a bird heaven.
I finished yoga and was generally chatting with the owner of the place Mr. Lalit. He was a very polite caring and kind person. He told me that they had planted over 500 trees around the house more than 20 years ago and all that we see now are mostly planted by them.
A couple of days of being there made me really feel at home. I requested Mr. Lalit if I could spend some time with the and know more about the work they are doing. He gracefully agreed.
We met in the evening and he told me about how he came to Abu and so on. Later I got to know that his wife feeds so many birds daily. Birds take the food directly from her hand sometimes. Yearly they feed more than 300kgs of Bajra alone to the birds apart from various other grains. And all this next to their house.
He was telling me that the WhatsApp forwards of sparrows leaving the city due to mobile phone networks etc. we’re not true. The real reason was they did not have proper and safe places to stay and next. If you go to Mr. Lalit’s home you will see so many sparrows as they have a safe place to nest and stay. In fact their main gate and house is open from the top for birds to easily come on and nest inside the house if needed.
He was also telling me that snakes sometimes come in since the main gate is not covered. But it’s ok compared to birds not coming in.
They told me and incident where the maid had mistakenly switched on the fan and the mother sparrow which had nested inside the house died. Deeply sorrowed to avoid any future mishaps Mrs. Manjula cut the wires of the fan completely. She also helped the baby sparrows be safe and fed them till they grew up. Compassion is an understatement.
Their love for nature, trees and birds is infectious and inspires us to do something small in our space. You don’t need to make a forest. But plant a few trees around your home and feed the birds and animals near your home. If everyone does it, it will go a long way.
Their work is featured in the to Times of India. You can read the article here.
Endless thoughts 