Isn't it a wonder

Isn’t it a wonder?

Finally I have some time today to spurt on my blog :)
I have been thinking, while my blog was quiet, waiting for me to fill in.
It has been long, last post was on Monday, August 23, 2004 … whew that’s a really long break from blogging. Anyways, I am back and blogging :).

As a kid I was very curious and always playing the “why and how” game that I guess every one does. In the process I discovered many things, although at that time I had little understanding of what exactly I was up to, and not to mention I caused a lot of trouble to my parents but I know they love me.

I recollect as a kid, I got hold of a caterpillar roving in my garden. It was very beautiful all black with red, white and yellow dots all over it and two beautiful black antennas two in the front and two at the rear. It was about and inch and a half long and must have been slightly less than a centimeter thick, it was big as far as the size for a caterpillar, that as a kid I could have imagined.

It was harmless. When it moved on my hand I had a tingling feeling when its thoracic legs and the abdominal legs clung on my hand, it was very soft, like silk. I picked it up and brought it inside my home. I prepared a home for it using a shoe box. I gave to it the leaves of the plant on which I found it feeding. I had read in the school text books that a caterpillar turns into a cocoon and then in to a beautiful butterfly. Now I was about to experience the same in real life. It was very exciting. I love my Mom and Dad they never said no to what I was doing :).

Days passed by I kept feeding the little thing with plucked leaves from my garden. I played with it, allowing it to explore on my arms, enjoying the tingling feeling it gave. The time came, one fine day I saw it weaving the cocoon! It was a sight to behold. Using its spinneret it was spitting a sticky liquid and then weaving a cocoon around it. The day it happened I watched it for hours and my mom was really angry as I was not studying, but I was happy as I was experiencing something different, I was extremely excited, and I know she too was pretty enchanted by the experiment. Finally it made the cocoon in 2 days. The silky black skin was shed before it entered into the cocoon. The cocoon had a hard shell unlike the silky touch of its past life.

It was still, no movements, I wondered if it was still alive. The next day I dared to pick it up in my hand and to my astonishment that thing wriggled in my hands! It was an amazing feeling, to feel a budding life in my own hands. I could see it now filled with some liquid and white grainy matter towards the translucent front end of it. I was taken aback by the metamorphosis process. Once a caterpillar, it was now trapped inside a hard shell and the whole body turned into liquid and some white lumps.

I could feel the thing move inside the cocoon, but I had no idea what it was. It was no more a caterpillar and it was definitely not a butterfly. It was awe-inspiring. I had a feeling of pride flaunting it to whoever came to my home. It was a different! I kept a careful watch on it all the days, the liquid inside kept getting dense as the time passed, one fine day it broke open the shell and came out. I was unfortunate not to see this happen as I was in the school at that time.

When I came home I heard something flapping inside the little shoe box. I knew my efforts had fructified and I was very excited. I opened the box very carefully so as not to frighten the little life and before I could see the fruits of my labour, it flew out of the box and sat on the ceiling of my room. I was overjoyed but for a moment. It failed my expectations badly. It turned out to be a large Moth instead of a fascinating Butterfly in myriad colors that I had imagined it to be.

Nevertheless even today when I am writing this I am filled with excitement about the rendezvous I had with “Life”.

The sheer thought of being aware of the existence of our life is mesmerizing.

One powerful thought – “It’s a great feeling to feel the life itself”.