The insect lovers

Yesterday after church, V took us vegetable shopping. Leaving me to manage the two brats, he went in to the shop with the maid. I was also asked to buy fruit juice for the lil ones to keep them quiet.

As we waited for our sathukudi (sweet lime) juice, Ash spotted a dull, brown butterfly on the strawberry ad plastered outside the juice stall. It had him all excited and he kept shouting 'Buttepy, buttepy' drawing the attention of most of the patrons there. He then noticed two black round patterns on its folded wings and cried excitedly: "Amma look, eyes". I tried to join in his enthusiasm though the dull-looking butterfly didnt appeal much to me, used as I am to myriad-hued butterflies and dragon flies in my place back in Kerala.

Once upon a time, there was a shoeflower tree in front of our family house. (It is not there anymore.) It lit up the whole place with its pinkish red big flowers. The mornings were the best - sparrows and butterflies swarmed to the tree to drink nectar. This would go on till about 9 am.


The backyard also had wild flowers growing amongst tapioca and banana plants. Dragon flies, some with needle-thin tails, of all possible colours playfully flew from one flower to another. During vacations, we caught some dragon flies but always let them go after examining them. I loved the sky blue ones the best. There was also these dragon flies with flaming red tails which we called the Onam thumbi (maybe because they were most visible during the harvest/Onam season). They always eluded capture and were too fast on their wings for us.
We also watched caterpillars weaving their nests in a swinging motion on the leaves. We would go each day to check if the coccoon had been formed or the butterfly had left its coccoon shell.
And here was my son, who didnt have the luxury of enjoying nature the way we did. Who got all excited about a dull brown butterfly.

He then spotted a lil black yellow rimmed millipede rapidly making its way to a hideout in the wall. "Look Vaava," he called out to his sister who hadnt been all that enthusiastic about the dull butterfly. She is a bit beauty conscious. However the millipede interested her a little more. I told him we call it an atta, so he shouted atta atta and watched its progress on the ground. He showed the two insects to his father who had by then finished his shopping.

I was glad I could show a bit of nature to my little ones instead of just watching other shoppers or the jasmine-lotus sellers at the entrance to the shop like we usually do. I think when they grow a little older, old enough to be separated from their parents for a while, I will send them during summer vacation at school to my beautiful little village in Kerala with the many insects, birds and animals.