World Sparrow Day just whizzed past us but we were so embroiled in the land-industry tug-of-war and other ‘big’ environmental disputes that we remained oblivious to the puny problem of the safe existence of this tiny winged wonder
Nirmalya Deb
The demure colour on a sparrow’s small fleshy rotund soft feathery back is a work of sublime sombre art of nature that no great human artist could ever create on canvas – what exists are mere imitations, or “mimesis”, as the ancient Greek thinker Plato had said about the laboured products of human art. There are a countless imitations lying around scattered throughout the great body of human history, but the sensible delight or the perceptual pleasure one derives from, say, watching a house sparrow catching a quick shower, whirring its wings like a table fan on a hot summer afternoon in the tiny puddle in the middle of the grey field bathed in harsh sunlight, can never originate from mere imitations; this is for sure, despite the tremendous respect we have for the purgatory powers of literature or art, and the sources of deep emotion and sensibility that aesthetics deals with. A fleeting touch of reality stirs within us a deeper perfection and level of knowledge and satisfaction that no ratiocinatory knowledge of the world can give us.
The very instant or moment the tiny creature takes a quick bath in the afternoon is a source of great satisfaction that comes from an innocent experience: to see it flapping its wings in a mood of great physical excitement and tiny droplets whirring fast around the soft grey wings, transmits in us a like physical and perceptual sensation, to describe which we need to mine the resources of poetry. Bengali lyricist and singer who is also a music director, Kabir Suman has a four-line song describing the quick shower of a house sparrow in a hot summer afternoon, seeing which the singer concludes his song by saying that he likes to drench his spirit often for small intervals in the alluring cool puddle under the giant shade of the banyan rather than belting out one continuous strain for a long time causing much emotional and vocal drainage.
The insignificant sparrow has also been the source of much folk art and music. The one literary reference of a rather high-brow and heavy nature that we quickly associate with the sparrow is the short story by Indian writer KA Abbas. The protagonist has been rendered desolate in his own house in the countryside counting last hours when he sees a bunch of sparrows huddled in the ventilator on his roof, feeding their young ones, shielding them from the harsh realities of life, and desperately trying to eke out an existence from the bare resources of sustenance. This experience arouses in the protagonist the flicker that leapt for life in the last hours but in vain, as the soul was drenched of all vigour. This tragic tale associates the sparrows with the universal fight for existence and human follies of character and conduct that lead to tragedy. In the inevitable web of tragedy, the sparrows fill the vacuum by representing life and effort, which is why the literary reference is so poignant.
Tagore’s many references to the winged wonder in its many playful moods during the day – the sparrow is a routine intruder, either perched on the ceiling fan or the rooftop, or sauntering around the open terrace taking somersaults and quick sharp flights from one corner of the open verandah to the other – paint the life of the creature in all its physical delights of colour, contour and character, and its life inextricably associated with big, open 19th century households that had wide terraces and verandahs where the whole family would lie around enjoying the sun on a cool December morning and the busy house sparrows that had taken shelter on the roof come hurrying down the terrace walls or the front gates to play in the open sunlight. So, the upper-middle-class Bengali poet in his teens must have had that domestic ambience that propelled in his senses the predominance of sparrows in the household to muse on their life and character, mode of existence, and, most importantly, the symbol of co-existence with nature in thought and experience. In literature and cinema this theme of co-existence with nature runs deep in the Bengali psyche and, consequently, aesthetics. Take for example Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, where the much-admired scene of Apu and his elder sister Durga witnessing the very commonplace occurrence of moss flakes slowly moving out in ripples, and again reassembling on a sun-lit pond in the middle of the leafy village, and the surface water over again, in a slow cycle, getting covered with green, which is a metaphysical depiction of currents or waves making a momentary impulse – a kind of a sudden physical and mental trepidation and again resettling in their former contexts; like death of near ones creating a sudden tremour of pain and again dissipating in the mindless course of life. The epistemology, or knowledge from natural experiences that we derive are, therefore, very clearly depicted in both Tagore’s and Ray’s recreations of those experiences.
But if we start sourcing the origins of Ray’s cinematic achievement we would quickly realise that much depends on the power of the literary images relating to nature and natural experience that are there to be found in the original works of Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhayay, the author of Pather Panchali. Take, for instance, his short story Puimacha, ‘Pui’ is a leafy vegetable that Bengalis and Oriyas and people of the eastern half of the country are fond of. The protagonist, in this case, a little school-going village girl who is extremely fond of ‘pui sako’ curry mixed with ripe pumpkin and soft sweet potato, is excited at the slow germination of the tender green succulent stems from where the small wavy dark green leaves take birth at the backyard of her household. Her life, the short narration shows, gets entwined with the leafy plant at the backyard, but the irony lies in the fact that her sudden demise at the prime of youth and strength makes no impact on the tender plant that branches out in all its strength. Notice the deep inter-relationship between human life and nature and the contrasts and ironies that are the stuff of art. Notice also the fact that we have been primarily discussing short stories that have their source in the sudden intense moment of spiritual illumination from a fleeting phase of experience that the Irish literary great James Joyce calls an “epiphany”. There are invariable parallels between the spirit of a short story and the fleeting scene of a grey dark-spotted sparrow’s quick afternoon shower.
A report in a national daily last Sunday had the news item at the bottom of the front page that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s daughter Tina has been gifted a place by her father where she could feed water and grains to a flock of sparrows that assemble on that spot, and that the UP state government is doling out awards and certificates of merit to deserving school students who had conducted practical environmental projects in their locality. The government is also encouraging the setting up of such shelters for urban sparrows; the winged creatures have been badly affected by the predominance of mobile towers and rampant urban deforestation. A La Martinere student and a Kendriya Vidyalaya student got awarded for their campaigns against the wide use of plastic or polythene – non-biodegradable material. This is a novel initiative of the UP government that should be lauded and followed by other state governments that ought to show an iota of concern for urban ecological sustenance. But in states like West Bengal, for Instance, more pressing issues like the establishment of industry on farmland are at the forefront of dispute and debate and, thus often environmental issues of subtle and refined significance such as the safe co-existence with creatures as tiny as sparrows are wantonly neglected!
In this context, let’s also analyse the role of the current-day curriculum of environmental studies in schools and colleges and the scope for a refashioning of the syllabus to make it more practice-oriented. Rather than only framing a set of objective questions on the facts and objects of nature, the syllabus should rather be experimental and exploratory; for example, rather than mentioning that there are so many wildlife reserves and sanctuaries in particular regions of the country, students should be taken on a visit to the sanctuaries and encouraged to experience wildlife from up close. Rather than bagging the correct two marks for the question that how many bird sanctuaries are there in the country, the student should rather visit some of the sanctuaries mentioned in the textbook and watch the birds from close quarters and learn their scientific names. The same method of learning applies when a student visits a zoological garden. Therefore, environment-conscious CM’s like Akhilesh who want their sons and daughters to create homes for dwindling species of animals or birds, such as the fast-disappearing house sparrow, should also throw their political weight behind the demand for the Union HRD ministry to grant funds for ecological trips of school and college students, channeling the resources through the University Grants Commission. Visits to particular parts of the country rich in ecological resources are a must for college and university students who treat the compulsory Plus III paper ‘Environment Studies’ in a routine dry, academic way. Such trips could arouse the spirit of curiosity and adventure in students to re-discover nature.
The humble subject of the common sparrow, however, when imbued in literary and conceptual hues, comes to assume an aesthetic significance that beguiles the intellect and has parallels in cinema, art and culture. It is, therefore, vital to nurture the social consciousness that it is crucial to work for the preservation of such creatures and their irreducible associations with human habitat and culture. School students are not passive intellects on whom are injected the facts of nature and the natural sciences. They ought to explore and discover nature in its breathtaking variety in the classroom, laboratory and the world outside. Today’s students, like Akhilesh’s daughter, deserve as much.