I had a visitor the day before yesterday. He stayed the night in the rest house close by. In the morning he is all excited. He is excited because he heard the frogs croaking all night! He lives in the city and apart from the traffic and the occassional dog fights, he has heard nothing else.
In fact, I assure him, what you heard are three different species of frogs croaking. I sleep to that cacophony every night in the rains and curse the frogs for invading my sleep.
But then when I reflected on what the visitor said, I thanked my stars for making me so lucky. The frogs assure that I can sleep without mosquito nets and mosquito repellants. I don't worry of the electricity shut downs. I can get a good nights sleep without electricty on summer nights or rainy nights.
The cicadas bother me in the summer; but now I will be thankful for that too.
And I am thankful for the clean air, I am thankful for the tiny honey bees that pester me round my ears in the winter, I am thankful for the blood sucking leeches in the rains, I am thankful for the ticks in the strobilanthus bushes in winter which itch for days, ...
Now that I think about it, I have learnt to live with these minor discomforts that have become a part of my life, that when I take friends for outings in the jungle, I feel as comfortable as people in cities are with blaring horns and diesel smoke...
In fact, I assure him, what you heard are three different species of frogs croaking. I sleep to that cacophony every night in the rains and curse the frogs for invading my sleep.
But then when I reflected on what the visitor said, I thanked my stars for making me so lucky. The frogs assure that I can sleep without mosquito nets and mosquito repellants. I don't worry of the electricity shut downs. I can get a good nights sleep without electricty on summer nights or rainy nights.
The cicadas bother me in the summer; but now I will be thankful for that too.
And I am thankful for the clean air, I am thankful for the tiny honey bees that pester me round my ears in the winter, I am thankful for the blood sucking leeches in the rains, I am thankful for the ticks in the strobilanthus bushes in winter which itch for days, ...
Now that I think about it, I have learnt to live with these minor discomforts that have become a part of my life, that when I take friends for outings in the jungle, I feel as comfortable as people in cities are with blaring horns and diesel smoke...
What are cicadas? Why do they bother you in summer and why are you now happy they are around? I'll tell you what bothers me in the city. No frongs, no cicadas, no honeybees. I miss them. though you can have the mosquitoes!
ReplyDeletesorry! insert " am not complaining" for "thankful" in the lines on - honey bees, leeches, ticks...
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