Priya Ramesh Swaminathan: All things bright and beautiful...

Thursday, 17 September 2020

All things bright and beautiful...

We would religiously sing a ditty at school. It went like this:

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful, the good God made them all...

I don't remember the whole song, but this stanza beautifully sums up its gist. This world is inhabited by myriad life forms in the form of flora and fauna, which brighten up our lives, add value to it and help us to breeze through our lives, just by being around us. Only the most hardened person would be able to ignore the beauty of Mother Nature in all its colorful and dazzling glory!

We are blessed to be living in a housing society that has forested, green hills behind it, inhabited by peacocks, hares, snakes, squirrels, monkeys and lots of chirping birds. Each day, we eagerly look forward to a glorious and brilliant sunrise and an equally magnificent sunset. The shades of blue, orange, yellow, red, grey, purple and myriad other hues jostling for our attention in various breath-taking formations along with the smattering of clouds, (with or without the silver or golden lining!) literally make our day (and night!)

We have created a small replica of this beauty on our terrace. A motley collection of ever-increasing terracotta pots with a variety of plants and creepers that attract a variety of tiny creatures! In addition to the ubiquitous pigeons and the occasional mynas...

Every flicker of a tiny being, sends me scampering for my mobile to capture its presence on our terrace and in our lives. As Zoology students at college, we were asked to collect some insects in matchboxes as an assignment. In those days, the ones that we got were only ants, cockroaches and the occasional bugs.

Nowadays, I have a plethora of insects literally begging to be photographed. Have a look at my collection of snaps of these amazing 'creepy-crawlies'!