Tuesday, July 30, 2013

the end of the half year that was two thousand and thirteen


If you thought you were lazy, you haven't met the flies buzzing about in my room. Their name is quite the paradox because they don't really do much flying. Maybe science offers an explanation, such as the altitude difference. Because the ones here, well, they're pretty much the dormant version of the species. Sure, their autonomic system is pretty dandy. They still manage to escape my clutches as I try to clasp them in my fist, pretending to myself like I'm a frog trying to tongue-trap my dinner. But their motor skills...hmm not so much. They wouldn't make any parent-fly proud. They wouldn't make good candidates for any red bull advertisement after downing ten cans of it, even...hypothetically, of course.

As for anybody who has Ophidiophobia, count yourself out. You wouldn't need the sight of an actual snake to pee your pants, the thing called a millipede (that I just managed to trick out of my room, phew!) is enough for that. The millipedes here help redefine the integer 1,000,000. Not only are they faster than the flies around here, they refuse to leave your bedroom and go around in circles till they make you dizzy.

Enough about the wildlife here. And it's not like I'm even living in a forest, really. This is pretty much the most advanced town in this district of Uttrakhand. Almost kills the environment-friendly scholar in me as I count the blessings urbanisation has brought to us city-dwellers. Not like I ever thought of myself as a city-dweller before. But  short trip has been enough to knock some practicality in my head. My head, which is the nest of many a moth that while traversing the distances decides that it is just the right moment to make that pit stop.

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