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Things of Beauty



'Go away now..come back when you are a butterfly'.... in his books,
Ruskin Bond throws out caterpillars from his room with these words. My exact sentiments!!

It is so magical that an itchy, creepy, crawly thing like a caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly after a few days inside a cocoon. That's what's called 'beauty sleep', I guess :)

Born and brought up in Bangalore, I was quite indifferent to nature. Now, living in the most beautiful Malnad part of Chikmagalur, I'm surrounded by nature on all sides... I only have to look out of an open window to see these fascinating creatures flitting and fluttering by - seemingly careless, while performing the duties assigned to them by nature.



Butterflies love the lantana flowers and sunshine. Infact, lantana makes up for 50-60% of the plants in a butterfly park. Once the rains arrive, the butterflies disappear - to goodness knows where! Old timers here, in the Malnad, missed the butterflies so much during the 4-6 months of rain, that they called this variety of 'monsoon rose', ChiTTe gulaabi (Butterfly rose)



North East India is supposed to be a haven for rare butterflies. Often, one reads about the rampant smuggling of butterflies from Sikkim, etc. Now, what does one do with dead butterflies?? Well...they are chemically treated, mounted and framed. Such pieces are touted as great things to adorn the walls of well decorated homes. A recent trend is to wear such butterflies as pendants, rings,... :(

Huh!! the ideas that the human mind can come up with!!

Come to think of it, this one, resting on a Canna plant will make a great brooch!



Not for me, though! I like to let my fellow creatures be....taking a pic is the closest that I can ever come to catching a butterfly!
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