(As told by Chief Justice of India, Justice R.C.Lahoti in the form of the story of the sparrow
on citizen activism).
The story went like this: Once a fire broke out in a forest. There was a hen sparrow sitting on the top of a tree in which she had her nest. She watched the fire for a few minutes and took some decision. She spread her wings, flew high and reached a lake near the forest. She filled her beak with water, flew back and dropped the water on fire. She did so many times. A crow was watching the bird with amusement. It asked the sparrow, “Why are you wasting your energy? Do you think that a beak-full of water can extinguish the fire in the forest? The bird replied, “There are more than one reasons for my initiative.
First, whether big or small,
every body in this forest must fight against any calamity to the best of its capacity. Second,
my activity is my declaration that I am not on the bandwagon of those who set the forest on
fire; I am amongst those who are fighting the fire. Third, I will never have a regret in my life
that for extinguishing the fire I could have done something but I did not. Fourth, I am an
example and inspiration to those who can fight the fire but are not doing so. And, lastly, I will
go down in the record as having done its best to fight the fire.”
