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Once upon a time, there was a bird (and a yogi)

Mynas come to my balcony to squat. I try to be good.

I don't know about you, but I can't remember the last time I saw a sparrow in Dubai. It's kind of sad. I like sparrows. I'm only talking about them because today is World Sparrow Day, March 20, and it seems like the done thing to do.
I must have watched too many Disney movies as a kid because the cutesy association of sparrows being feisty, zippy, non-grudge bearing, cheery, etc - has dropped anchor in my subconscious. That's how I think of them. Laughing doves, the birds I see around here the most, seem more standoffish. I see them hanging by the metro station, just there, pecking at worms or grain invisible to my myopic gaze, not too much dalliance in their occasional hop. They don't even really hop; they're more matronly like that, these waddling cousins of pigeons. No pluck.
Near water, I often spot gangs of seagulls - especially when it's overcast. Mynas (starlings?) come to my balcony to squat. I try to be good; I try to remember to keep out bits of roti and water but I'll be honest, it doesn't happen everyday. No wonder then birds are angry, angry birds.
A birdy highlight of my UAE years was the time I tagged along with Dr Reza Khan of Dubai Municipality on a flamingo-sighting field trip to Ras Al Khor.
We go to town about women's day and mother's day and world this that and the other day, but sparrow's day? - I'm sorry for the sitting-duck pun - but it seems, it's strictly for the birds. If you ask me, the happiness agenda of this country should make it mandatory to tear spongy bread bits for them. White, brown, wholewheat, stale, foccacia, whatever it is. Ciabata will probably be too tough for their non-teeth. Either way, I'm told it earns us good karma. Seems like the least we can do for trespassing on their space.
At Sadhguru's talk on Saturday (went to cover it on reporter duty) some of his moral-of-the-story type tales had to do with animals - monkeys, cows, birds. And I was telling someone a story he narrated that stuck in my head: A bird was so busy tweeting that it didn't see winter approaching. When it finally decided to migrate south, its wings froze in midair and it plopped to the ground. A cow - on ground level naturally; we're not in a Marquez story - in order to resuscitate the bird of its pneumonia or whatever, took a dump on it. The bird recovered. Then a cat came, licked off the sh*t, and ate it. Bye-bye bird. Moral of the story: Not everyone who drops sh*t on you is your enemy, and not everyone who picks you out of it is your friend.
Over dinner at a joint called Tang Palace of mapo tofu, fried cabbage with chilli peppers and string beans (without the beef)  - a dish the new UP CM dude Yogi Adityanath should be pretty okay with - I was telling a friend about feeling bad about the dying-out sparrows. And that Sadhguru, probably feels bad about it too, judging by the compassion towards animals and insects and birds in his talk. I looked up some stats about sparrows. Their numbers have fallen, like the frozen migratory bird, by over 3.5 per cent between 1966 and 2015, resulting in a cumulative decline of 84 per cent, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. I'd really like it if the metaphoric cats eating them as they fall out of the sky would stop that, maybe peck at grain or something instead. But then, which cat eats grain.
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com