Life of a Caterpillar

Life is very complex.

Nothing is same with no one else. Even with the same person, it is never ever the same.

When a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly it expends the enormous amount if energy it accumulated while eating for days-together to rejuvenate itself for a tomorrow with different set of fun; and challenges as well. It appears as if the moths just sleep, but imagine the magnitude of its brain-activity and the complexity of process happening to distress/detoxify themselves.

There is a caterpillar which weaved itself into a cocoon. Three branched up there is a crow which royally shits sitting at the edge of its nest. Unfortunate caterpillar’s cocoon gets drenched. It has only two options – speed up metamorphosis while the cocoon gets rotten and the acid melts its wings (or) spend a little energy in building an inner lining to safeguard itself. In either case, some of its energy is lost and it will never be able to be the butterfly it had to be. Far up the same tree is an eagle which shits royally sitting at the edge of its nest which would fall into the crow’s nest if there were no wind.

There is no point in the crow cribbing that her eggs are getting `faded-up with eagle droppings. The crow which feels bad just because shells of her eggs are getting discolored while the chicken will no way be affected, does it have the slightest idea of what is happening inside the cocoon? While all this is happening, on the same branch bearing crow’s nest is an ant carrying a small piece of left-out to its burrow. The crow starts winding its wings to blow the eggs clean. In this spurt of wind the ant struggles hard to grip the branch while clinging to its food.

Who is the culprit & who is the scapegoat?

Could the situation be different, if not better, had the birds put a little effort in flying a little distance for shitting…..?

If it is a caterpillar in its cocoon, the action affect only one and result in either a dead-caterpillar or a limp-butterfly. Otherwise in case of a bat or a honey-bee, no matter whatever happens to one, it disturbs & disrupts the routine of all its’ companions.

It is quite imPOSSIBLE for various species to learn the likes and life-styles of other inhabitants of the tree and live accordingly. But it is quite POSSIBLE to have harmony in the habitat, with a little effort from everyone.

Humans are no exception for analogous situations.

Let us take a similar instance when the members are physically immobile and situational interlocked. When four people are dining, one of them gets a call from his father about an important issue, which all of them are aware of. He can’t finish the dinner half-way nor can he end the call. While the person handling the remote-control doesn’t feel like reducing the volume, he gets a call from one of his friends to plan for the weekend shopping. A third person takes over the remote-control and now the second signs him to mute the television. When the volume is reduced, he insists on muting the television. The fourth is not having the remote-control and is quite helpless. He can’t eat happily, nor can he tolerate the situation.

These four people are in the same situation as the caterpillar, the crow, the eagle and the ant respectively.

I always have a shallow sleep, and take a little time to wake-up with unpleasant noises. There are numerous instances when I cursed the restless people continuously ringing the calling-bell on our door, while I was asleep till I could wake-up and open the door.

On a recent evening I happened to ring the door-bell continuously for 15 seconds, just for making some fun. I felt very sorry when I learnt that I’ve disrupted the deep-sleep of one of my roomies who was tired of a long-journey followed by a strenuous day at work.

There are many instances in my room alone that I’m yet to learn so much of math to count how many have I encountered through out my life. In few of them rest of the cast in drama felt that I was playing a Saint, calmly bearing with everything and in few others they felt that I was playing Rambo, revenging for what he undergone. People keep debating on ‘Gandhigiri’ and ‘Goondagiri’, but I believe in none. If the reason behind the agitation is communicated, it solves the problem.

It is in our actions and attitude whether we allow the cocoon to raise a healthy butterfly or not. If I could make you THINK of at the least one instance in which you could do better, my purpose of writing all this is served.

Thanks to that roomie of mine who awoke two of us at 5:30 today morning with the crackling sounds of water in the toilet, the door to which he left open. Had I not woke up today I wouldn’t ever have voiced these thoughts.