Maybe the worst part about having a day dedicated to something or someone is the fact that the celebration is restricted to 24 hours. We are reminded of this during a conversation with Subhajit Mukherjee, who mentions that days such as Women's Day, or World Sparrow Day, which will be observed tomorrow, should also be a date to accomplish something. Mukherjee, a Charkop resident, is the founder of Mission Green Mumbai, a citizen's movement to plant one crore saplings across
the city.

World Sparrow Day was initiated by the NGO Nature Forever Society of India in 2010 — it's a call to save the house sparrow, whose population has declined by about 50 per cent due to pollution levels and insufficient space for the birds to build nests. A week ago, Mukherjee, a former HR professional, decided to lend heft to the day with an initiative to plant thousand saplings across educational institutions and housing societies, mainly concentrated between Andheri and Dahisar. A total of 640 saplings have already been distributed, with a massive plantation drive planned in Borivali tomorrow to reach their target. "I realised that rather than just talk about conservation and sell products, it is better to get people directly involved in this. You can't make a difference in one day," he tells us.