How do we know that the grandmother loved animal?
The grandmother loved animals because she cared for them and thought about them in her daily activities. When the author was enrolled in the village school, the grandmother would carry several stale chapattis with her for the village dogs and feed them once the day was over, meeting the village dogs at the temple door. They would follow them home, growling and fighting with each other for the chappatis she threw to them. In the city, the grandmother came to accept her seclusion with resignation and found the activity of feeding the sparrows as the only form of relaxation in the afternoon. She would sit in the verandah, break bread into little bits and hundreds of birds would collect around her, creating a bedlam of chirrupings. She enjoyed her time with the birds, as they perched on her legs or shoulder and sometimes even on her head. She smiled but never shooed them away.