"Why don't you try and be subtle at least once in a while?" Veena, my sister, gave me the death stare.

"The subject demands being forthright and I maintain, trying to hail grandpa again is stupid. He will end up becoming the laughing stock of the town," I stuck to my guns. 

Whack! 

"You don't have to hit me for being honest," I said, rubbing the back of my head as Veena stood with hands crossed in front of her, facing away from me. 

"So much for being Soulhailers. We can't even bring grandpa back," tears started welling up in her eyes. "Come on." I led her outside and we sat down on the raised platform in the porch. 

"It isn't that we can't bring him back. Tell me, what made you want to hail him in the first place?"

"The sparrow," Veena's eyes glistened, the tear drops accentuating the glow. "Remember how grandpa would become a child at the sight of sparrows? Remember how he would leap from his recliner, grab the box of pulses from the kitchen after fighting grandma away and feed them? Remember how they would stand around him and peck away faithfully?" 

"I do."

"And for a week now, a sparrow has started coming by. How wonderful it would be if we could hail grandpa so he could feed it?"

"Look, I understand," I said. "But imagine what he will do when he realises that we have all of one sparrow visiting us and not hundreds?"

"Hmm..."

"He will ask where the others are, realise they are all gone thanks to rapid urbanisation and pollution..."

"But he is an influential man," Veena interrupted. "He'll meet his friends and will move mountains. He'll leave no stone unturned to make sure the sparrows come back."

"Veena. What are you saying? Grandpa will make it his mission, I agree. But he was an influential man. And his friends were influential. They are long gone too, remember? If we hail him now, he will run from pillar to post, meet corrupt men who will taunt him to no end and he will end up depressed. Do you want to see the man who walked majestically become a wreck and slump in a dark corner?"

"No, but..."

"But what?" 

"I already hailed him and he is in transit," Veena's voice quavered.

"Unwarranted. You will have to bid him farewell. The sparrows aren't coming back."

"Stop being so blunt," Veena burst into tears.

"I will not,  for grandpa's sake, Veena. Bid him adieu."