~ Impression of a lifetime ~

So many things shape the mind,actions,thoughts and life of a child-Parents,environment,school,friends…and sometimes very importantly-the teachers…So much so that, sometimes they form a lasting impression on their minds and stay with them throughout their lives.....Something like this had happened to me ~ ~

I have been lucky of being a teacher’s pet most of my life and have received that special attention from them during my school days.Those fond memories are still with me…And I always thought-That was it – Until one day,I woke up after a night of dejection and gloom,and felt rejuvenated-The reason being one very strange dream,the one which took me back to the yesteryear -and that dream gradually came back to me as the day unfolded itself ..

I was back in school-One of my favorite teachers from high school was reading out one of my papers in front of the whole class and then afterwards,she encouraged me and told me something which stuck with me…As always,she appreciated me and professed her immense faith and pride in me, and then she encouraged me..of things I’m capable of,of things she expects from me …This particular teacher-I was in awe of her..And as if she was the only one who could pull me out of my temporary state of dispirit ..And on this particular date,when I felt down,she came back from my past and cheered me up,reminding me of my true potential !!

It was so strange to realize all of a sudden that although a certain person had some place in your mind and heart, she can have so much influence on you,that in your subtlest moments,in your subconscious state of mind…that person stealthily creeps back from the long gone past, and with a few right words can bring you right back up on your feet !!

~ ~ Inconspicuous

Saw a fallen branch on the banks..and went down to take the clean shot,which I was unable to get from my balcony

~ And when I was done with the conspicuous, my eyes caught the inconspicuous beauties of nature, which we happen to trample so often ~

I walk on these grasses every day, I look at this lawn,this bank daily-but still my inquisitive mind and exploring eyes have overlooked them……

I came upon so many different kinds of vines and saplings…vibrant green in their proud new self - There were humble blooms among the grasses,flowers of the growths that we often call “ weeds “ - Only if you look closer, you’ll notice their real nature, and know that such little beings can be so pretty,so bewitching……

There is so much quality in the macrocosm- so much richness flourishing in the sods ~ Seldom do we care to look for them…but when we do come across them, we grow to love them and eventually happen to contemplate the beauty and variety of miniscule beings, the roles they play in this whole existence…in their lives and our lives and the lives of the zillion other critters ~ ~

Bedazzled by the aura !!

We all sat there,that evening,in the darkness and waited for the display to begin-And even though I have seen it many times before..it still seemed to transport me to a diff world-mesmerizing world of fantastical romance ..I mean, how beautiful can this get ? The lapping waves, it’s foam barely visible, the strange seductive hissing sound of the waves……the bright shimmering water,due to the reflections…and the changing colors of the shimmering waters-with the colors of the fireworks above !! All the blinding lights from the nearby hotels couldn’t mar a bit of this experience.

We talked about the Diwali celebrations back home~ everyone chipping in their childhood memories, who preferred what kind of fireworks,whose caliber was upto which level-Starting from “ tara baaji “, “ rong Moshal “ to “ Kali Potka “, “ Choc Bomb “,” Rocket “ etc…

Then we inhaled deeply – The wind has brought a very familiar smell towards us-that of the burnt-out fireworks, which we all seemed to devour

And lastly, my wandering & always anxious mind thought of an inevitable thought-how much pollution does all these fireworks,all these smoke and fume cause each yr ? How much poison are we inhaling ? How much damage are we doing just by being mesmerized by this, just by loving this and looking forward to this event, every yr ????

Ghosts of the Abyss ~ ~

The documentary which takes you to a separate world-The world of the skeletal remains of a once majestic steamship …now a ghost,deep in the abysmal waters of the North Atlantic. Once called the ship which can never sink, it sank,to the shock and dismay of the world, on 14^th April 1912 ~ Taking with it the lives of more than 1500 passengers..Lack of enough lifeboats being the major reason for such a huge casualty-and women and children were given preference over men, leading to the death of comparatively larger number of men that cold night !!

She was the largest passenger steamship,engineered with the latest technology,built by some most experienced engineers of that time..Inspite of all those extensive and expensive safety measures, she succumbed to an early end, four days into the voyage from Southampton,England to New York ~

The rich and famous passengers were in for a great time-the opulent,luxurious ship, a great Captain-Edward Smith, with 30 yrs of Naval career under his belt, the use of the most technologically advanced systems of those times.What more could you hope for ?? An accident, as fatal as this, was the least possible thing that can happen -The ship was equipped with everything to brave any kind of storm which comes her way !!

But yet she sank…..with all her luxury,majesty and her passengers !!

What great four days those proud passengers must have led, what pride must the engineers and workers taken in their work of art , the firemen aboard the ship who worked the boilers must have been proud too ,to be on the Titanic and the Naval staff must have held their head high above their starched collars !!

Now she stands,buried half-way into a dark,deep chasm of the North Atlantic ocean floor- split apart into two…covered with barnacles and rusticles !! She is still a regal thing to look at-many of her décor still intact-the glass works,the woodworks….Many of her artifacts have been removed and taken to a museum in Greenwich,England-But she’s dwindling fast,microbes are eating her away …

Watching the insides of RMS Titanic in the movie “Ghosts of the Abyss “ transported me to a different era, a different creation-She is dead,her worldly days have long been over,almost 100 yrs ago ~ but yet she is so much alive-Alive in her own royal ways…People are still in absolute awe of her,people still want to know her and take a look at her ~

I envied the researchers and scientists who have been going down to 12500 ft below the ocean surface and taking a tour of the wreck …I envied all the sea creatures which now call this majestic wreck " their home "- What a life…to live on and in the Titanic ~

That ill-fated night of 14^th April 1912, indeed “ A Night To Remember “ ..

When she lived,she was an object of admiration…and even though she’s dead to the worldly eyes now…she’ll always be awe-inspiring, for years and years to come !!

A Migration to die for !!

It’s that time of the year again-My parents,grandparents and great-grandparents left the safety of these trees on the shores of Lake Erie- and undertook a tedious migratory journey of 2000 miles,flying 80 miles a day at a time….from the north,across the vast North America-all the way to the south…to escape the cold harshness of Canada to the comparatively warmer climates of Michoacan,Mexico …We are proud of our lengthy annual migrations,north to south before the first frost and then southward return journey in spring –which spans the life of 2-4 generations …No single individual makes the entire round trip-It’s our 2^nd,3^rd and 4^th generations that come back here to Canada-That’s how I came back from the fields of Arkansas,where I was born, to the shores of Canada …And now, it’s my turn…and I’ll be leaving my home for the last time,never to come back !!

I’m a Monarch butterfly and proud to be the only one of our kind to make the dual north and south migration,like the birds ~ I know I’ll have to follow the position of the sun as a compass to reach those conifers of Mexico, as my seniors once did – My winter roost, with millions and millions of others of my family ~ We keep ourselves warm and safe by hanging from the branches of the trees all through the winter, in clusters…..millions and millions of us covering all the branches and the trunks of the trees like one big colorful Persian rug ~ Many of us might be attacked and eaten up by bright-colored Orioles,although we are poisonous and distasteful to many predators~ And many others who fall from the clusters to the ground and fails to come back up by nightfall, will just freeze from the night frost !!

But that is life- our kind have been doing this for many many years ~

And when the 1^st signs of Spring arrives implying the end of wintering, we awaken from our crowded bundles, open up,flutter around joyously and make our way back …Well, not entirely..

The ladies will lay their eggs on our way back, in the fields and meadows of North America & the future generations will return home to these trees ~ ~

So, I’m taking my time to enjoy the ambiance of this place I’ve called home for the last several months,till that moment arrives ~ ~

Till, I make the greatest journey of my lifetime and accumulate an once-in-a-lifetime experience ~ * ~

Decoration for Seduction !!

This is a story of the complex behavioral aspects and unique mating techniques-The story of the art of seduction….

He builds a bower, a hut-like conical structure made of sticks, tied together with grass and stuff…an art in itself,which he takes great care and many days to perfect-The front entrance of the bower is propped up by two columns-like sticks...

He takes great care to clear the “ front lawn “ area and decorate it with mosses and dead leaves..

Then comes the final adornment-the entrance to the bower is decorated with dead beetles,flowers,berries,colorful leaves,apricot fungus – laid out very artistically, with the touches of a skillful interior decorator-so much to attract and lure a mate for the season….

And he takes extra care to rearrange stuff,discard old or unwanted items,like fungus off the deer dung that he has so delicately arranged…or properly aligning the charcoal in a symmetric heap !!

And he is not alone….he has neighbours and rivals – and rivalry even leads to theft, with neighbours stealing “ novelty “ items off each other’s property !! So much to outdo each other and attract a prospective female ~

Females visit the bower, often there is a single female visiting many bowers at a time, and after repeated inspection and close scrutiny, depending on whose bower and/or decoration she likes the best, she choses her mate ….The winner is declared and all the hard work is appreciated-The bower itself plays no role in nesting or housing the youngs, but only as an instrument in courtship ~ ~

And to add to this effect,these birds are adept in singing and mimicry as well !!

This is the story of a Bowerbird….to be more precise - the Vogelkop Bowerbird, found in Indonesia –a master seducer,when it comes to the art of presentation and décor….Human males who are in the process of wooing, please take notes ….don’t forget to get the flowers and the candles,before inviting her in your house !!

Maternal instincts in the wild !!

We,humans take pride in our parenting skills….We think animals,specially small,insignificant ones, are dumb and incapable of anything-leave alone taking care of their youngs…My entire notion changed when I happened to come across,among a few-the parenting of an octopus and a strawberry Poison-dart frog …..

A strawberry Poison-dart frog….lays her eggs,as expected,in a pool of water-and when the eggs hatch-the momma frog gets apprehensive-To make sure the tadpoles survive,she carries,each one,one at a time,to different water-filled spaces,like the bromeliad axils (which are epiphytic i.e. growing on another tree trunk ) and deposit them there-separate spaces are important,otherwise the tadpoles will eat each other during the growing process….The frog often makes a climb of half a mile to one mile up a tree to search for separate water-filled spaces or bromeliads-each time it carries a tadpole.There is not only so much toil behind this entire up and down and nursery-searching process, but sacrifice and maternal thoughts,even in an amphibian.

And she doesn’t stop at this- she visits the growing tadpoles every few days and deposits one of her unfertilized eggs- source of food for the growing young ones …..

An octopus,slimy and weird looking as it is, is a creature deserving commendation for it’s parental techniques !! A male octopus dies after mating…and the female lays the eggs-sometimes 200,000 together,after a few days and hangs them in strings from her nest-They look like clusters of grapes from vines. She stops eating entirely, so that she doesn’t have to go out to hunt and leave her embryos in danger ….She sometimes has to sustain out of her own body parts- She,like a caring mother,gently sways water over the eggs, to ensure they get a constant supply of oxygen. And once the eggs are almost ready to hatch, the mother octopus leaves the lair and is too weak to survive the attack of her predators…She sacrifices her life so that there wouldn’t be any competition for food between her and her young ones ~ ~

Maternal instinct exists in perhaps all the living creatures- It is us,humans, who fail to see it or realize it, bcoz we are too pressed for time, are selfish and busy, taking pride in our intelligence, which we have successfully used in wiping out hundreds of species from this earth- species whose maternal instincts we would never come to know !!

The swaying curtains .....

The windows were open,the curtains were moving in the light summer breeze-A lovely summer afternoon…tea was on a tray with my favorite cream cookies..Cookery show was on and the bell rang-Dad is home !! And that was when I woke up ~ ~ Woke up and found that the window was closed shut and the curtains weren’t moving either-There weren’t any tea on the bed,the television was dead and everything was still,boringly dead …… ~

So, I woke up not from a dream,but from the past to the present ~ And even if the curtains swayed now,I would feel like being on an ice floe,alone in the cold,in Antarctica …trying to survive and live another day !!

Deja Vu

A dream or a forgotten experience- I had a déjà vu-while watching LIFE- Snow-covered conifers,frozen lakes~Have I ever been to such a place ?

All those tall trees standing aloft,touching the sky-reminded me of someplace I had frequented in the past ~ Few jumbled-up feelings of nostalgia,déjà vu and faint memories which might or might not exist ~ Painful,exhilarating ,exciting,eerie ..among the various named emotions I’m going through right now !!

Memories of a garden,of a similar garden which I can see on the screen right now- where Mom showed us that so many butterflies have lain their eggs under the leaves of a certain plant …of several butterflies fluttering around and making us wonder if there will be more within the next few months !!

Memories of hundreds and hundreds of caterpillars at a certain time of the year on the Night-flowering Jasmine ( Shiuli ) and drumstick tree ( Sojne ) – barring us from venturing anywhere near them during those times ~ ~

Memories of the beautiful and short-lived flowers of the cactus,during summer nights ~ Mom’s greatest collections – waiting, ever since laying eyes on the buds ,specially after dusk…almost as if to catch them in the act of blossoming and then taking pictures,before they close and shrivel up in the morning sun - to cherish them forever ..

Those were not Déjà vu ….these are real memories…and I have surely been there !!

The Star of my balcony ~ ~

I took in long,deep breaths and enjoyed the enchanting sweetness of the Jasmine ~ kept on submerging deeper into the sea of fragrance with each inhalation….of the intoxicating Jasmine ~ My very own home-grown Jasmine….coming in 1s and 2s and sometimes in 3s….when the heat sets in !! As pleasing as they are to look at….I call them the stars of my balcony garden ~ their fragrance surpasses everything that can be called beautiful and awe-inspiring.

As the daylight gets absorbed into the oncoming dusk, the star of my balcony sets out to hypnotize us with it’s aromatic spell,after it’s share of all the mesmerizing it accomplished during the day, with it’s beauty ~ They remind me of my childhood days, of summer, of my hostel days….

And each time I breathe in into these delicate beauties, only one thought comes into my inebriated mind – if only I could hold on to this perfume forever ~ If only I could keep on smelling this smell and nothing else ~ Why do things of beauty and bliss always have to be so transient,passing and ephemeral ?