‘My God! There’s such a lot of grain scattered around,’ said the new sparrow. Eagerly, it picked the grains with its beak.

   ‘You call this a lot?’ said the other sparrow. ‘Come early in the morning tomorrow and see for yourself how generously Thatha takes fistful of grains and scatters them for all of us.’

   ‘Which Thatha?’ asked the new sparrow.

   ‘See that man over there, calmly reading a book, sitting on the easy chair? That’s Thatha.’

It was a human form. The new sparrow felt a bit scared.

   ‘Silly fellow, why are you afraid?’ chuckled the other sparrow. ‘It’s only because of Thatha we’ve been coming here for many years. We come and eat our fill of grains, we drink clean, cool water from that trough, then take a bunch of soft grass in our beak and fly back to our nests. We caper, scamper and gambol about in these trees. We also rest here.’

   The new sparrow tilted its head to one side and looked at Thatha from the corner of its eye. Then gradually, it inched its way hopping and took in the figure that was reading quietly. His hair had turned completely white. On that calm and peaceful face, a pensive sadness had spread out like a thin film. 

“Nandanvan”, from Nandanvan & Other Stories