Moving the clock leafs back to my
good old childhood days. Here I am up to write about the insect
pets I had back in time.
The place where I grew up was a small township called Chinnalapatti near Dindigul (Tamilnadu, India), although most of my friends & me call it Chinnala-City out of the exaggeration for the warmth and the feel good moments it gave us.
Chinnala-City was covered by bunch of villages here and there. Among them I remember SamiyarPatti the most. Since my house happened to be pretty nearer to that, just a rail line in-between. I had really good friends from there and have still, who helped everyday to form a "train" and have snacks in every other home we enter, with our overwhelming fascination for a train journey.
So now without deviating much from the mysterious pets I wanted to share about. One beautiful morning, I saw that servant maid's brother was having a big green insect inside an egg shell. I was frightened and didn't want to touch. After little strength out of the advice from Jothi(Servant maid) I touched it, her brother went on lifted it up and landed it right on my palm which got me goose bumps.
Oops it was big, terrific but yet slow moving and shiny. Now my mind got poised with that shiny insect and was in cloud nine when her brother showed the egg it laid. I badly wanted it and politely asked her brother to give it to me. But only after bargaining for ten rupees I got it for myself and myself only.
A new pet, that too, in an egg shell?? No should not be... thought myself, and went on fighting with my mother to get a bigger container from the Kitchen. So goes the Ponvandu into the big beautiful container with Tamarind leaves for it to eat and support the egg. I made some pores too so that it has plenty of Oxygen for it to be alive.
Those days I was really nocturnal, once my parents sleep I used to take my father's torch a 3 cell everyday silver torch, so without disturbing them I used to play in the light it offered. Sometimes my experiments on the torch will eventually lead to the bulb getting broken and next day he will replace it after giving hefty amount of advice to a very obedient very silent me. But my rampage on the torch continued and he used to complain to my mom, as she always covered me up for what I do and did with the torch.
So that day when my new pet was there and all my curiosity was on the egg.....The Egg!!
Here again the night falls and my parents slept, and now scientist is on with the torch and the container with the beetle. My imaginations flying around, thinking let me force the light straight to the egg, so that the egg hatches..........intuition after hearing that chicken eggs hatch with tungsten bulb's heat.
Egg hatched by the torch glow or I hatched the eggs, what might have happened ???
Days passed as I waited it to hatch with my dad's torch on the boil. I really didn't go out of the house in the weekend even to play nor did I was fully mindful in the school. Everyday once I reach home I ran up to the container and saw whether the egg is hatched and the insect is alive. In school I used to discuss ideas to hatch the egg with my scientist friends and talk big about my deed with the torch in the night.
One fine day, my objective was completely broken, I saw that the little tiny egg was no more in that container, as my mom was cleaning it and replenishing it with livestock(tamarind leaves) every day, I went on and started Devil's advocate with my mom.
My mom's reply was a sweet surprise, "Hey the little one flew away after hatching, so it might come back later to find its mother, so keep an eye". Scientist believed and was happy but was worried that I couldn't witness the miraculous event which I waited waited waited and waited. I hoped one day it will return with flying colors to see its mother. Another thought on the corner like Sherlock Holmes, "why could I not see the hatched egg cell" asked my mom. Again my mom said she cleaned it the day before.
Secret: (Actually she had missed the egg when she cleaned it, which she told me after a while, when I had my realization).
Although a day came when I saw that the insect in the container was no more able to walk and it was lying there immobile. I thought it was missing its egg that's the reason why it is very sad and feels like dying. To resolve this situation, scientist spoke with my servant's brother again and asked where he found it. As pointed by him we both went to that place at noon, a big tamarind tree. In the same place where he found it I placed it, and convinced myself saying "it would become alright, it will not die".
Walked back to home, thinking I did what was good for it!! But alas the next day when I went alone, I could see only the feathers out there!!
From then on I never did pet a Ponvandu, although my friends used to have it and I used to wonder about it all the time as I did the first time!!
The same fascination for them has made me write this treasure moment and share along with you!!
One thing for life which I realize with this event is, recognize and get fascinated for small little meagre blessings in life, you will be a blessing for many, indeed the purpose of our life.
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| Ponvandu(Jewel Beetle) and My Dad's Torch |
The place where I grew up was a small township called Chinnalapatti near Dindigul (Tamilnadu, India), although most of my friends & me call it Chinnala-City out of the exaggeration for the warmth and the feel good moments it gave us.
Chinnala-City was covered by bunch of villages here and there. Among them I remember SamiyarPatti the most. Since my house happened to be pretty nearer to that, just a rail line in-between. I had really good friends from there and have still, who helped everyday to form a "train" and have snacks in every other home we enter, with our overwhelming fascination for a train journey.
So now without deviating much from the mysterious pets I wanted to share about. One beautiful morning, I saw that servant maid's brother was having a big green insect inside an egg shell. I was frightened and didn't want to touch. After little strength out of the advice from Jothi(Servant maid) I touched it, her brother went on lifted it up and landed it right on my palm which got me goose bumps.
Oops it was big, terrific but yet slow moving and shiny. Now my mind got poised with that shiny insect and was in cloud nine when her brother showed the egg it laid. I badly wanted it and politely asked her brother to give it to me. But only after bargaining for ten rupees I got it for myself and myself only.
A new pet, that too, in an egg shell?? No should not be... thought myself, and went on fighting with my mother to get a bigger container from the Kitchen. So goes the Ponvandu into the big beautiful container with Tamarind leaves for it to eat and support the egg. I made some pores too so that it has plenty of Oxygen for it to be alive.
Those days I was really nocturnal, once my parents sleep I used to take my father's torch a 3 cell everyday silver torch, so without disturbing them I used to play in the light it offered. Sometimes my experiments on the torch will eventually lead to the bulb getting broken and next day he will replace it after giving hefty amount of advice to a very obedient very silent me. But my rampage on the torch continued and he used to complain to my mom, as she always covered me up for what I do and did with the torch.
So that day when my new pet was there and all my curiosity was on the egg.....The Egg!!
Here again the night falls and my parents slept, and now scientist is on with the torch and the container with the beetle. My imaginations flying around, thinking let me force the light straight to the egg, so that the egg hatches..........intuition after hearing that chicken eggs hatch with tungsten bulb's heat.
Egg hatched by the torch glow or I hatched the eggs, what might have happened ???
Days passed as I waited it to hatch with my dad's torch on the boil. I really didn't go out of the house in the weekend even to play nor did I was fully mindful in the school. Everyday once I reach home I ran up to the container and saw whether the egg is hatched and the insect is alive. In school I used to discuss ideas to hatch the egg with my scientist friends and talk big about my deed with the torch in the night.
One fine day, my objective was completely broken, I saw that the little tiny egg was no more in that container, as my mom was cleaning it and replenishing it with livestock(tamarind leaves) every day, I went on and started Devil's advocate with my mom.
My mom's reply was a sweet surprise, "Hey the little one flew away after hatching, so it might come back later to find its mother, so keep an eye". Scientist believed and was happy but was worried that I couldn't witness the miraculous event which I waited waited waited and waited. I hoped one day it will return with flying colors to see its mother. Another thought on the corner like Sherlock Holmes, "why could I not see the hatched egg cell" asked my mom. Again my mom said she cleaned it the day before.
Secret: (Actually she had missed the egg when she cleaned it, which she told me after a while, when I had my realization).
Although a day came when I saw that the insect in the container was no more able to walk and it was lying there immobile. I thought it was missing its egg that's the reason why it is very sad and feels like dying. To resolve this situation, scientist spoke with my servant's brother again and asked where he found it. As pointed by him we both went to that place at noon, a big tamarind tree. In the same place where he found it I placed it, and convinced myself saying "it would become alright, it will not die".
Walked back to home, thinking I did what was good for it!! But alas the next day when I went alone, I could see only the feathers out there!!
From then on I never did pet a Ponvandu, although my friends used to have it and I used to wonder about it all the time as I did the first time!!
The same fascination for them has made me write this treasure moment and share along with you!!
One thing for life which I realize with this event is, recognize and get fascinated for small little meagre blessings in life, you will be a blessing for many, indeed the purpose of our life.
