World Sparrow Day .

Ode to a vanishing bird.

A bird that was so common that  they were not worthy of being photographed.  A well known Photography tecaher in New Delhi actually advised against  photographing them. That was "not Nature Photography " according to him and  the rules of  the photography contests  Pictorialists like him ran.

And today, the Hindustan Times,-0 the newspaper I reviewed his book (on learning Photography) in,  has this to say

CHANDIGARH  As the world prepares itself to celebrate World Sparrow Day on Thursday, one fourth of the city residents have not seen even a single sparrow in the past 10 years, a study conducted by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and Panjab University has found.