#532 - Ostrich Girl
by Lesley D. Biswas and illustrated by Anupama Ajinkya Apte
“Ostrich Girl” by Lesley D. Biswas and illustrated by Anupama Ajinkya Apte. Published by Duckbill. A story that creates awareness about the plight of birds being trapped to be sold in cities.
Ritu lives with her mother on Henry Island in West Bengal. Her mother works as a cook in the Ank Ank Guest House. Many people on the island are trapping birds to sell them to traders who then sell them in cities. This has resulted in very few birds being left on the island. To ensure that tourists coming to the island do not realise this and get disappointed, the manager of the guest house has come up with a crooked plan. Some of the village children have been recruited to form a group called “The Secret Songsters”. They wake up before dawn every weekend and imitate bird calls to please the tourists who visit the guest house.
Ritu is not at all happy getting involved in this unethical way of things. She sounds pathetic trying to imitate a bird. However, she has no choice but to do it as they need the money desperately to make ends meet at home. A young boy called Anik visits the island with his parents and aunt who is a columnist in a newspaper. He is interested in bird watching and mistakes Ritu’s call to be that of an ostrich when she is practising bird sounds. This leads him on a quest to see the ostrich. But there are no ostriches on the island. What is going to happen now? Can Ritu find one to show him? Will the secret of the island be revealed to Anik and his family? Will Ritu be able to bring about a change for the future of the birds on the island? Read the delightful story to find out all of these.
The touching story showcases a grim and sensitive issue in a highly effective manner. My almost ten year old and I found this a compelling read. We raced through the pages to see what Ritu would do. The approach taken to address the issue was a well balanced one considering both the livelihood concerns of the island residents as well as the safety of the birds. My son has always been against caging birds ever since he read “The Parrot and the Merchant” a couple of years ago and realised the importance of their freedom to fly. He was happy to see another book set in contemporary times addressing this important issue. All said, this is not a completely serious book. There were enough light hearted moments of humour and silliness which we couldn’t resist laughing at. The selfie obsessed mother of Anik and his father trying silly stunts for instance. It was lovely to see children like Anik being interested in birds and preferring to do bird watching during a holiday. The book is part of the “Hole Books” series which is meant for children who have begun reading chapter books independently.
The sorry state of the bird life on the island was something that moved us. We observed something similar on a trip to Meghalaya a couple of months ago. Given our interest in bird watching, we were surprised that there were close to no birds there despite it being such a green region. Not even the common birds were seen/heard making it seem like such a mystery. We heard that the birds were killed using catapults for sport and that’s how they had all vanished over a period of time. Not sure if this is the actual reason but what a pity this seems that the region has such a dearth of birds. The Green Avadavat which used to come close to humans in earlier times is today endangered due to our greed. They fell prey to trappers who sold them as pets for lucrative prices. Today their habitat is reduced to just a couple of places and they are extremely wary of humans. The migratory Amur Falcons which used to pass through Nagaland were killed until awareness was created about their conservation. The only way these issues can be addressed is to spread awareness about the importance of birds amongst people. The livelihood concerns of the local community needs to be taken care of so that they do not have to resort to trapping birds. They can be provided with alternate opportunities where their knowledge about birds can be used in a constructive manner. The success story of Mangalajodi in Odisha is a fabulous example of the same. Also if we stop keeping birds as pets in cages, there will be no demand for them. The whole chain of traders and poachers/trappers will be forced to stop this illegal line of work then. We can enjoy watching and listening birds in the wild rather than trying to get them in our homes.
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 7 and above.
Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Penguin India (Duckbill), for review. Thank you to Mansi, from Penguin, for sending across the book!