Losing a loved one is painful and that is what the residents of a village in Karnataka named Basavapatna felt when the sparrow who visited them daily died. It may sound strange but the locals had immense affection for the bird and it died a few days ago plunging them into deep sorrow .

The village located in Shidlaghatta taluk of Chikkaballapur district witnessed people gathering at one place to mourn. They constructed a tomb for the dead bird after burying it and also performed Dashadinakarma. Following the rituals observed for the human beings, on the 11th day, a non-vegetarian meal was fed to the entire village in its memory. A prayer meeting was also conducted.

Banners were printed with the sparrow’s image on it.

Fondly recalling their association with the bird, the villagers said that the bird’s daily routine provided them a light moment in their life especially during the days of pandemic.

Talking to the media, Savitha Rayanna, a resident of the village said: “Every morning the bird would come to my verandah and that’s when I would know it was 8 a.m. I would keep a handful of grains for it and it would so actively pick every grain and fly away. Even our relatives who visited us loved the little creature. My children always waited for it to come. It made our mornings better. We will miss it for a long time.”

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