Night of the fireflies
Rapid urbanisation has spelt doom for these insects that light up the darkness
or the first time in many years, I spotted a solitary firefly glittering in the pitchdark backyard. The sight was an enchanting one, and it took me back to my childhood days.
I thought how beautiful was my village some five decades ago before it metamorphosed into the busy city it is today.
In the eastern corner of my ancestral land, there was a large pond which gradually merged with a canal that meandered along the fringes of our
Fcompound. The point where the pond and the canal met was a marshy patch surrounded by tall grass. During hot and humid summer evenings, we were delighted by the marvellous sight of swarms of fireflies imparting an ethereal setting to the night sky.
We, the children, were particularly delighted by the magnificent nightscape as we were fed on innumerable stories about fireflies by our grandma.
Whenever we saw fireflies, all those tales told by grandma came alive in our imagination.
My friend Robert was adept at catching those innocent bugs with cupped palms. He would transfer the helpless beings into a small glass bottle, closing it tightly with a rubber lid. Kept in a dark corner of the room, the flies would emit golden light intermittently, much to our joy.
Amma, however, would scold us for our cruel deed. She would shout, “Let them free, otherwise they will die.” Later, we would release them, though reluctantly.
My closest friend Obby had his house by the side of a lake. A nearby swamp with mangroves was an ideal and safe haven for hundreds of fireflies.
But time has brought many inevitable changes to our once beautiful landscape. The pond in my courtyard no longer exists, the canal which used to flow silently along our homestead is now a village road, and the marsh alongside Obby’s house has given way to encroachments.
The village has grown into a city and electrification has robbed us of the velvet darkness that gave the best backdrop for fireflies to display their magical glow. Only very few of these glittering insects remain now.
Though we are blessed with many amenities now, development has taken away many of the natural wonders.