Romancing with Nature

Most of my time is spent working and the little leisure time I get
either I go to feed the elephant some bananas or just walk around
forest villages seeing how rural people live or going for bike rides!

On a different occasion, I have spent leisure time simply watching how nature works at it’s own pace. Have you ever seen a butterfly romance another butterfly? Simply fascinating, as I watched a dark chocolate coloured butterfly with white spots chasing its partner. Through the dark green leaves, off it went setting its own musical trail for its partner to follow with an upward movement and a downward toss as if responding to an inaudible orchestra of music. The female (I am guessing that the other one is a male, as in the animal world it is usually the male who calls for the female) would simply dance to the tune and engage into a frenzied ballet dance with its partner, simply enamoured, dancing to its own “fleetly flee I fly” tune! It was as if there was a sudden burst of energy in this dance of nature and one could see the purest form of romance in which one butterfly would follow the other and respond to its movement in perfect unison.

I myself have been seduced by a particular call of nature! The first time I heard it, my heart skipped a beat, and the second and a third time. Then I realised it was a constant call of the cuckoo, but so musical and enticing that the first time I heard it, I thought it was for me. Lying in bed, in the dark, eyes closed I heard a distinct call, a beckoning of my name through the dark and unquiet woods. Sitting upright, my first instinct was to chase the call and to find out where it came from. I did not hear it for the next few minutes so my natural reaction was perhaps I may have heard it wrong. As I started to dismiss my imagination and settled down to reading a book I suddenly heard it again! This time it was loud and clear and it was as if there was an invisible someone in the woods seducing my mind every time by calling out my name. It was unfathomable and I was seduced. The next thing I remember was walking towards the woods chasing the sound expecting that imaginative someone to come out with open arms. But the subsequent surprise and gleeful joy was in the discovery that it was a cuckoo who was trying to entice me with its enchanting call. I knew I had fallen in love with it and do wait for it to call out every evening when I usually finish my day’s work and am in a pensive mood. I secretly named it “mon petit ami” as indeed it had made me skip my heartbeat quite a few times. Yes, you would also love the call of the cuckoo, enchanting, musical and enigmatic!

Mornings are also times when the weather remains very cool and there were quite a few occasions when I was required to travel on the field site for work. I must admit these were moments when I had let my imagination loose. Sitting behind a bike letting the cool misty, morning breeze soothe my face whizzing past open fields and small streams with the morning sun kissing softly, you could happily close your eyes to a musical tune and imagine a world full of colour and shimmer. Colours from the lovely trees and shimmer from the morning sun streaking out from the trees as I moved past in high speed. It did light up that inner self within me and I could easily set myself free from those inner shackles. It is all a matter of perception which I am trying to pen down for my readers.

Eyes closed you could see hayfields and green grasses beside you and imagine that you have reached a world where you are waving at someone who seems to be moving towards you. A light touch, a soft brush and you open your eyes to see that someone gazing at you. The distant sky turns blue and white with the sun rising and the cool morning breeze caressing you, you immediately realise that you are the protagonist of this love story! Gliding through time towards that invisible someone you wish to see his face and yet as you get closer all you seem to see is that he is farther away. You seem to be chasing a mirage and never get to see the face and as the journey continues, the endless pursuit continues and when you open your eyes, the sun has come out and everything around you is stirring back to life. The new day had begun!