Kumartuli or Kumortuli is located in the northern part of the city of Kolkata . The locality is a traditional habitat of the potters for nearly three hundred years. The potters or the artisans or the artists settled here during the restructuring of the Kolkata colonial region by the British East India Company . Earning a livelihood by making earthen pots and utensils first they gradually shifted to the making of the idols of Gods and Goddesses for various festivals round the year. With increasing demand and quality of their creations over time the artisans became famous and Kumartuli came to be known as the hub of idol makers supplying thousands of idols, particularly of Goddess Durga , to whole of the state of West Bengal and to NRIs of around 90 countries across the globe. At least three months before Durga Puja , the biggest festival of West Bengal and one of the biggest across Eastern India, more than five hundred workshops come alive with hyper activity day and night. Fir...
We have been used to be woken up by the staccato chirping of the house sparrows that jump and trot around the windows in the mornings. They have always been lovable small birds living in our roofs spending the full day with us, but over the years their numbers are getting less and lesser and in most of the towns and cities of India their morning alarms are almost non-existent. Environmental experts all over the world have expressed the fear of the sparrows getting extinct and the species already figure in the endangered list.
Proliferation of the mobile phone towers and increasing pollution are believed to the main reasons for this sad happening. Concrete apartment blocks replacing the traditional independent houses could also be seen as another factor.
While in Guwahati, Assam we were lucky to see a lot of sparrows in their normal gait and talkativeness, but definitely not to the extent as earlier. But in Nagaon, just two and half hours journey by road from Guwahati, the chirping birds are totally absent despite there being more traditional houses and not many mobile phone towers. In Mumbai the sparrow is extinct and the reasons are all there to see. Crucial factors are likely to come to light as experts go on analyzing.
We did not take them seriously when they were all around us. Now we miss them! We want them to come back and continue waking us up in the morning.
One Assamese song by Biren Dutta (a famous singer of Assam) of yore comes to the mind. "O’ ghansirika (meaning sparrow, also called gharsirikawhere ‘ghar’ means house), O’ ghansirika mor sotalot umalohi O’ ghansirika..." (Come O’ my little sparrow, come and play on in my courtyard…).
Where I live we still get a lot of birds, specially in the morning when it's cooler. When my nephew is here for a visit, that is one of his favorites in the morning, looking up for the birds!
ReplyDeleteBIrds here in CA are quiet annoying, especially the seagulls. They are like scavenger, and will scatter our garbages.
ReplyDeleteBut somehow I like looking at them.
Sparrows, really? That's sad news.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wondered also why I don't see or hear much from these sparrows for quite some years now. As a kid, I am used to seeing them almost everywhere, but now, not anymore.
ReplyDeleteThen it's our fault they're becoming extinct. Here in our country there's a boom in infrastructure too. Condo being built everyone. Sadly, these creatures don't have a chance. :(
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