CHENNAI: Step into Shally Hemalatha Vedamuthu’s apartment in Shastri Nagar and you will spot a sparrow nest — quite an unusual thing in the concrete jungle. Known in the neighbourhood and among her relatives as a saviour of stray pigeons and sparrows, 46-year-old Shally has also also provided a wooden plank outside her window for pigeons to roost.Shally starts her day by feeding pigeons that come visiting. Between 6am and 6pm, pigeons fly in, in batches of around 20 and feed on the raw rice and water placed on the plank. As one who has overcome a physical disability caused by polio and successfully battles a minor mental illness through drug therapy, Shally has been living with her septuagenarian parents in the two-room apartment for the past five years.One day, she spotted a few stray pigeons drinking water from the AC vent of the apartment, which prompted her to tell her father Daniel to put up the wooden plank for the birds to perch. Then, she also wanted to build a nest for sparrows in her balcony, which was also accomplished in no time.“I grew up in Thanjavur, where most houses those days had what we used to call a Madras ceiling. The ceiling was open with a grill that allowed birds to build their nests. Also, those were the days when there wasn’t any fan in the hall. Our elders believed we should nurture birds and built houses that way,” she goes down memory lane, recollecting the good old days. As a child, Shally often placed mud pots filled with water for birds and monkeys outside her home.Now, she does that for the pigeons in Chennai, which the Vedumuthus made their home 15 years back, owing to their other two daughters’ education. For bird lovers like her, Shally drops the hint that sparrow nests have to be placed at least nine feet from the ground, so as to keep the birds out of the reach of cats. “Also make sure that the inlet (space for the sparrow to enter its nest) is neither too large nor small, but just about right. They don’t like intruders,” she laughs.Other than providing food to the birds, the lone sparrow that has nested in the home provided in the balcony is given cooked rice and fruits by Daniel, and Shally spends her evenings taking care of her father’s Shastri Nagar Tennis Centre.Upon his daughter’s insistence, Daniel charges only a nominal fee for tennis training. For those who cannot afford even this amount, he offers the training free of cost. “It’s important that we do not disturb the sparrow in its home and it’s imperative to keep its food when it’s away,” says Daniel, adding: “People should understand that birds built nests only in second or third floors of an apartment. Ground floor doesn’t work for them as there are safety issues while beyond a point, there’s the risk of the height factor.”Shally rues about those who say they don’t have time for birds. “Don’t you have time for television,” she shoots back. “You don’t have to prepare any special food. Some raw rice or leftovers from the day before shall suffice to feed these birds,” she says, adding sparing a mere five minutes in the morning before heading for work is enough. Her love for these creatures has led Shally and her family to stay away from meat as well. “It was a huge shock to me when I came across horrifying sights of people in the city killing and feeding on pigeons,” she says. As she prepares herself to retire for the night at around 8.30 pm, she bids adieu, leaving us with, “I am an early bird, you see.”
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