I spent the first part of my young life, till twelve years old living in a small town in India, surrounded by fields and mostly open land with my parents.
My father had taken early retirement so I had both parents around all the time. He had spent some time in his youth gallivanting with a friend in the forests near his home town hunting deer, and obviously tuned into all that nature had to offer. He showed respect for all the life that surrounded us.
My mother also seemed to have knowledge about the wild life that surrounded us in our small town and shared it with me as I grew up and asked questions and wondered about the different plants, bird songs, insects etc. that I saw.
We took daily evening walks with our dogs all around our little town and sometimes experienced rare sightings of the wild life that lived around us, smelled and saw beautiful flowers in people’s gardens that gave off wonderful perfumes, and admired the huge and wonderful tree varieties all around. Enjoyed the products of the large variety of fruit trees (7 at least types) we grew in our back yard, all year round. Watched the wonderful, enormous red-orange setting sun every evening after our walks, and when the sun had set and the dark of night took over, we sat back in our canvas easy chairs and looked up at the immense, packed, starry sky and wondered, and were occasionally treated to a shooting star or two. At the same time listening to the Night Jar that sat in one of our huge Jamun (Jamlum) trees and sang its familiar song.
I was very sensitive about anything that negatively affected our pet dogs and cat, and the poultry and pigeons we sometimes raised, and fretted about it for days afterwards. I also couldn’t bear to see people suffering anywhere (in India this occurred from time to time due to the poverty so many people suffered from) and this also had the same effect on me.
So it would seem that these early blissful, nature-filled years contributed to my love and concern for all life on earth as I grew up and matured. Sadly, gone are the days when there was so much variety in nature in such enormous quantities, thanks to the man’s indiscriminate exploitation and hunger to have all he can from this amazing planet we call home!
I hope we wake up and change our ways to accommodate the rest on life on this planet and recognise that all of it has just as much right to survive and thrive on planet earth!