This story is based on the idea of creating awareness in the young minds regarding the harmful effects of technical advancements.

It was a fine evening when my six-year-old little girl Thaaruniha came upto me with her book and exclaimed happily “Mom, could you please see this picture and help to understand this?” It was her General Knowledge Text Book from her school and I looked at what she was showing. It was the picture of a Weaver’s bird and a Sparrow. I thought for a while about how should I explain this to my baby, then I started telling her.

“This is called a Weaver’s bird, and it is famous for the nest it builds. The nest looks like a cloth woven out of twigs, so fine and neatly textured and hence it was named as a weaver’s bird. The bird is known for its perseverance while building its nest”. I was speaking without an order while she interrupted “mom, I understand nothing. Can you please be slow and explain me?” I melted with her sweet voice and a tone that made me feel pleased. I lifted her and made to sit on my lap while I placed the book on her lap. Holding her little fingers while hugging her from the back, I started telling her, “my sweet girl the bird in this picture is called a weaver’s bird. As you may know, the term ‘weaving’ refers to making cloths out of fibers. Since the bird builds its nest in a similar way it has been named as such. And this is another bird, the Indian Sparrow.”

“so what is so special about them mommy?” she asked me and I continued, “ In general, birds are known for their cuteness, their little structure, the way they fly beautifully in groups. They always stay together, the so called unity, that’s the thing we need to learn from them.

And the most important part is their perseverance.” “whats that mom ? ” “ perseverance simply means trying without getting tired until we succeed.

As you see, these birds try to build their nest in a fine manner as I said before. While making these nests, these birds face a lot of struggle. The nest may fall down in a heavy wind blow. Or any other higher animals of the tree may destroy the nest. But the bird does not give up. It will fly over many places and try to gather the suitable grasses and twigs for its nest. The nest may fall down a hundred times and every time the bird will still try to continue until it succeeds. After building its nest, it checks many times for the excellency of its work and then it brings up a firefly stuck on to a piece of clay and fixes it inside its nest for illumination of that closely bound apartmental nest. That’s how these birds build their homes. It is a beautiful hanging apartment.”

As I said, she asked “mom, I have never seen such a nest until now. Where is it? Can you show me one? ” I took a breath and said, “even I haven’t seen any nest of that kind my dear. I have only heard of these birds just as you are hearing from me now. We are living in city where all the places are filled with high towers that spread up its unseen electromagnetic signals all around us. We all are using mobile phones, laptops, wi-fi and all possible wireless devices that work under the influence of electromagnetic radiation. But we never knew the harm hidden behind these devices. They spread up those electromagnetic radiation that are harmful to all living beings around. You see, when these radiations are harmful to human beings, think of those small birds. Those birds can not tolerate such radiations and hence many species of such cute birds have become extinct because of these advancements of us. That’s the reason we are not able to see these birds over here.”

With an awful expression she turned to me, “ so if stop using mobiles can we save them mom?” I smiled at her innocence and answered, “yes dear, but its not possible. The world is technically advancing so much and it is not possible to stop using such wireless techniques. But do you know how harmful are these radiations to our body?” “how ,mom?” “these radiations cause temperature rise in our body. For your easy understanding, think of a microwave oven we use in the kitchen. It produces microwaves that heat up food molecules thereby cooking them. In the same way these radiations can cause heating effects on every living cell around it. If you place an uncooked corn nearby our mobile phone, in few seconds, it will blow up into a popcorn dear. That much is its harm.”

She looked confused totally and I laughed at my foolishness. I had been explaining too much out of her knowledge. But she kept on thinking of something inside her little head and then asked me, “mom, then how could we protect these birds from these radiations?” I wondered that she got back to her subject even after so many diversions with my stories and felt like ‘Thank God, she wasn’t confused so much’ . I explained what I had in my mind, “My little one, we cant stop using wireless in our daily life.

Yet the only way to save these birds is to create bird sanctuaries and maintain those places free from these radiations by prohibiting these areas for the usage of such electromagnetic devices. Not only bird sanctuaries, some places like temples, hospitals and other areas can prohibit the use of such device so that the birds could happily live in these areas.”

As I was talking she asked me, “like the one we went at Vedandhaangal last month. Am I right mom?” she reminded of our recent trip to the biggest bird sanctuary that is acting as a great home to many kinds of birds around for many years. Even birds from other countries fly here during bad seasons in their countries and have a great time here. I tapped her back and answered yes.

She left for playing with the satisfaction of knowing so much about what she wanted.  I was thinking about what I was saying to her.

Yes, the world is advancing so much in technology but we are failing to protect our environment from the dangers of these advancements.

We need to maintain a friendly relation with all the species of this environment, and thereby maintain good food cycle, life cycle, etc.  only then, sustainability can be achieved in this Earth. These technical advancements are harmful to human beings also and hence we should use them only in the required levels.

Not only creating radiation free environment, but also by doing some little steps like keeping a bowl of water in our porticos and balconies we can help to protect birds from the dangers of high temperature during summer season. The world is facing Global Warming and in this time, doing this kind of water facilities will greatly help to protect birds.

I left to my work of watering my garden as I was running up all these thoughts in my mind.