The Fall of a Sparrow  (English, Paperback, Ali Salim)

The Fall Of A Sparrow captures the life of Salim Ali, starting right from his childhood. He speaks about his travels, his love for birds, and how India has changed in the last hundred years.

Summary Of The Book

The Fall Of A Sparrow, is the autobiography of India’s most renowned ornithologist, Salim Ali. This book shows how he evolved from a bird hunter to a watcher, and finally to a naturalist.

In 1906, at the age of 10, the author hunted his first sparrow, and from then on he travelled across the Indian subcontinent. He donned many roles, sometimes as a timber merchant in Burma, a motorist in Europe, a guide in Bombay, and more. Ali went to Afghanistan to study migratory Rosy Pastors and Red-legged Falcons. He also studied SeeSee partridges and Snowcocks on this expedition. When in Burma, the author worked with J. C. Hopwood, and contributed to Fauna of British India.

The Fall Of A Sparrow describes how Ali studied flamingos in Kutch. Through this book, readers will also get a picture about India under the British Raj. On a hunting trip to Bharatpur, Lord Linlithgow killed 4,273 ducks and geese. Once, when the author stayed at a government guest house in Bahawalpur, he observed the discrimination against second class guests. Some chapters in the book are titled Bastar, Schooldays, and Motorcycling in Europe.

The Fall Of A Sparrow starts from the ages when birds were hunted and stuffed, and goes into the modern era, where they are captured in photographs. This book is an autobiographical travelogue that takes readers through a 100 years of Indian history.

About Salim Ali

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, born in 1896, was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist.

He wrote his first book, The Book of Indian Birds, in 1941. Some of his other works include the 10 volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, The Birds of Kerala, and Birds of the Eastern Himalaya.

Ali moved to Burma to help his brother in business. He returned to India in 1917, and joined Davar's College of Commerce to pursue Commercial Law and Accountancy. At the same time, he took up a Zoology course at St. Xavier's College. In 1926, he joined the Prince of Wales Museum as a lecture guide. It was here that he got initiated into the study of birds. Two years later, the author moved to Germany to study at the Berlin Zoological Museum. He came back to India in 1930. In 1958, he was given the Padma Bhushan, which was followed by the Padma Vibhushan in 1976. Ali has received honorary doctorates from many universities. He passed away in 1987, and a number of bird sanctuaries and ornithology centres have been established in his honour.