It's summer here - though Facebook announced with a lot of panache " Today is the first day of spring", a couple of days back,it still is summer. I kept a customary bowl of water for the sparrows inside my box window and it was a pleasant sight to see those birds flying in and out chip-chipping, fluttering their wings and toppling over each other. Pretty sight definitely, especially as I enjoyed my unhurried cuppa tea and flipped over yesterday's papers. Champa's post on her animal loving daughter took me back to a time when we had more pets in the house than people , thanks to my mother. In our sprawling Lansdowne Road house we has dogs, parrots, pigeons , rabbits , mynahs , fultushi and myriad pets that my mother was so fond of. She also had a family of Shalikh Pakhi who would follow her into the house and each year would bring back their "baby Shalikh" for her to see , whenever it was ready to fly and meet their Grandmom. The bunglow at Benaras h