WHATS THAT??? A SPARROW

A quiet sunny morning with breeze gently blowing across the lawn …. Where Andrew was sitting along side his 74 year old father Samuel in bench that was placed at his house garden…..Andrew was busy going through his newspaper while his elderly father sat beside him enjoying the beauty around him …..

Samuel was a lean old man who was in army and got retired from his services 15 years back… since then it’s been Andrew who is taking care of his father… Sam was bald and had a small beard running across his chin, his grey hair showed the wisdom that he has gained over the years of his experience in his life… but over the past years his health condition was degrading, he has already gone through a heart attack and he had knee surgery a month ago so he had to dependent upon his walking stick to move around his home….

Andrew was so much into today’s newspaper, because its was the day when the results of the elections were about be announced…Sam sat quietly besides his son, suddenly something caught the attention of the silent Sam….. it was the chirping sound of a sparrow at a near by bush…. Sam smiled on seeing those sparrows and turned towards his son and asked “WHATS THAT?”…. Andrew still glued to his newspaper looked with a sense of disinterest and replied. .. ”A SPARROW FATHER” sam shook his head in agreement to his sons reply…

Andrew turned to the sports column of his newspaper.. When a sparrow just hopped on in front off Sam… Sam called his son with his fingers … Andrew turned to his father... “WHATS THAT?” Sam enquired…. Andrew replied with a severe look on his father, clearly showing that he did not want to be disturbed while reading newspaper….he replied “IT’S A SPARROW FATHER GOT IT”…Sam shook his head in agreement…

Now Andrew had reached the final article of the newspaper, when another sparrow which was drinking stagnated water in the garden was caught by the eyes of Sam… Sam reluctantly poked at his son with his fingers and asked” WHATS THAT?”

This time Andrew had lost his cool; he threw the newspaper and said in loud voice to his father

“IT’S A DAMN SPARROW, HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU WANT TO REPEAT IT, and CANT YOU GET IT…. S-P-A-R-R-O-W, DON’T ASK ME AGAIN…”

Andrew said it so loud that sparrows which were having good time in the garden flew away due to his noise….Sam looked into his son’s eyes and there was silence for a moment… slowly Sam picked his walking stick and started to walk towards his home…

Andrew felt guilty of behaving in such a way towards his father, he enquired”WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”, but he never got a reply…. Andrew decided not to bother much and picked up his paper and started going through it again…. After half an hour Sam came with a small pocket sized diary in his hand and sat besides his son… Andrew was still sitting with his newspaper trying to solve the puzzle given in the newspaper… Sam gave his diary open to his son and asked him to read…. Andrew with guilt inside on behaving such a way to his father didn’t have the courage to look into his fathers eyes directly… so he ignored his dad and and started looking into his diary… when Andrew was going through what was written in the diary Sam stopped him and asked him to read loud …and so Andrew read loud the following….

“TODAY I AND MY 6 YEAR OLD BOY WAS PLAYAING IN MY HOUSE GARDEN, WHEN A SMALL SPARROW CAME IN FRONT OF US…

MY BOY WAS SO EXCITED TO SEE THAT...HE ASKED ME 21 TIMES “WHAT ITS?”

I NEVER GOT TIRED IN ANSWERING IT AS SPARROW FOR ALL THE 21 TIMES, AND EACH TIME I ANSWERED HIM, I GAVE A HUG TO HIM, HE FELT SO HAPPY… IT WAS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE”

Andrew felt cold on his right cheeks after reading this … because tears were following through his eyes... Andrew threw his newspaper and hugged his dad and kissed him on his forehead …Sam wiped his son’s tears and both hugged each other…and made their way back to home….



“GIVING OUR VALUABLE TIME TO OUR LOVED ONE’S IS THE GREATEST GIFT THAT ONE CAN AFFORD TO GIVE, SO PLEASE DON’T IGNORE IT”.