The frogs’ song

Come night the concert of the frogs would begin. For nearly 10 minutes there would be a sonata by a bull frog. After some intermission a chorus would follow with all frogs participating. The sequence would go on and on during the entire night. It was a wonderful feast of music provided by nature in its sense of abundance.

In the 50’s we used to get rains in October every year without fail. Once the north east monsoon got set in there would be frequent rains.

I was around 7 to 8 years of age and our family had moved to a newly constructed house in a place which was just then developing. We had a big pond at the back of our house. The pond was dry throughout the year but got filled up during the monsoon.

We used to sit in the front porch during evenings. The first visitor a tiny frog would hop in. During the course of the evening many more frogs of various hues and sizes visited us. We were advised to leave these alone. visitation by swarms of insects also occurred every evening. But with frogs, spiders and lizards sharing the habitation the insect population was always under control.

The pond at the back of our house was full of water for 3 months in a year, but we never had mosquitoes with so much stagnant water close by. The frogs not only kept the population of mosquitoes under control but helped in controlling vector borne diseases comfortably.

There was no protected water supply to houses in our neighbourhood. We had a well in the garden and we used a rope and pulley to haul up water. We did not have electricity but used a kerosene lantern. Apart from the frogs the house sparrows, visited our home during nesting time.
The Cooum River was full of water and was not polluted in those days. The other river was Adayar with its beautiful sand banks and sparkling water. There was also the Buckingham canal which was used to bring merchandise by canoes from inland to the sea. All the waterways were in good usable condition.

The wonder was that there was very less mosquito nuisance in the 50’s, with so many stagnant water sources in Chennai. The main reason was creatures like frogs were able to control the population of mosquitoes and insects.

The first victim when Chennai entered the modern age was the Cooum river. With influx of bulging population, it became a sewage canal. The Buckingham canal lost its use in the 60’s with sprouting of slums on its banks. The death knell came in 1997 after MRTS a suburban train route was built. The Adayar River also got polluted over a period.

Chennai today is a concrete jungle. Gone are the lungs of the city; the green spaces. Gone are the days of the frogs. Apart from burgeoning human population, millions of Mosquitoes are also breeding in stagnant water trapped around the Metro rail stations built on the Buckingham canal, and also in the stagnant waters of Cooum and Adayar Rivers.

The gainers seem to be the mosquito repellent and mosquito coil manufacturers who are doing a roaring business.
Nobody seems to have realized the reason for the war of mosquitoes on humans. It is the subtle but forceful retaliation of nature on the Chennai people for having destroyed the wonderful green cover they had once and showing scant respect to nature.

“Can we ever hear frogs’ song again?” seems to be a mute question. The possibility seems to be bleak as the building and road construction activities are going on a full swing. People can term these activities as progressive but Nature will surely fight back in the near future.

The 2004 tsunami still remains green in most of the minds of the people of Chennai.

The boy with the lemon fizz

The boy was of a good height and looked well grown and quite charming. He was fair and wearing a short and a T shirt. He was holding a bottle with lemon fizz in one hand. He was bubbling with enthusiasm and people in the hall were looking at him with interest. He was quite active and keeping himself occupied without disturbing anyone by gently running around. Every few minutes he would sip a little from the bottle and again start his routine. His mother came back after a few minutes and he went near her. As she was signing a paper on a table, the boy gently hit with his leg one of the side support of the table. The wooden support piece came out of its location and the boy nonchalantly tapped it back to its original position.
It all happened when I went on a morning to the electric supply office near my house to pay the monthly bill.
It was a big hall on the first floor with two counters. There was a long queue in front of one of the counters but the other one had barely two people standing. My wife had come with me with the hope of visiting a temple nearby. But as the temple was closed she had no option but to accompany me to the office.
I have been telling her in recent times to get involved in outside activities and not to get locked in home chores. While she agreed in principle she had not actively engaged as these were additional burdens to her.
It was a good change for me and I requested her to stand in the queue and make the payment. She chose the one with lesser people in the hope she could finish early. As there was undue delay in that counter my wife went to the other one.
It was then I noticed the young boy of 5 or 6 years of age. He was of Chinese origin. His mother was standing nearby to pay the bill.
He was fondled by people as soon as they saw him. But he neither acknowledged nor dissented but continued his activity of gentle running. After some time, he sureptiously went to one of the large windows provided and gently spat on the trees outside.
I have watched many boys of his age who were mere children compared to him. Here was a boy behaving in a matured way with determination and sense of pride.
The only thing which exposed his young age was his dependence on the bottle and getting back to his mother now and then.
As I was leaving the hall he had only a few drops of the lemon fizz left in the bottle but he was still trying
his best to sip out the last drops of the juice with vigour.

Ode to the black kitten

You were so tiny and weak neither your mother nor any one cared
Chasing your mother for milk that she rarely gave
When your siblings were chasing me for food you used to trail behind on your weak gait
But God had provided in such a frail body tons of love
You would come near me and lick my toes shyly but full of affection
Hunting for a morsel of food all the time
You always recognized me among others and would start purring
I missed you in the last few days! You were not to be seen in the mornings
I don’t know what has happened to you
I have truly lost an affectionate mate full of God given love
Will I ever see you?

13.7.10