perils of living in a city

In a previous article, we talked about observing nature at the smaller end of the spectrum. Living temporarily in a city, we rarely have a chance to amuse ourselves on those miniscule wonders. Neither do we have a chance to see those animals at the larger end of the spectrum. There are some doves which we can watch from our window. That is all. That is the reason why the lion’s share of the nature photographs on this website are those which we had taken previously from our native place in Kerala, India. You must have also noticed that most of those photographs were taken at the backyards of our home! That is a stark difference of the quality of living, in these two different homes – the temporary one in a city (Bologna, Italy) – and the permanent one out of the city sprawls (in Kerala, India).

We knew the perils of living in the city before. BUT we realized the extreme dearth of nature around when our son pratyahara was born. We want to show him trees, birds, animals, bees, beetles, butterflies and dragonflies. If we go to the balcony, but, we get to see the dispiriting concrete jungles and cars. Not a life or green patch to see… 😕 We want him to sleep listening to the lullabies of the frogs and the cicadas and wake up to the calls of the birds. But all that we can hear are the blaring motorbikes, ambulances and police cars.

mayfly and F10

On seeing this mayfly on my keyboard, we would be tempted to ask – why and how in the world is this fly here?! We would surely miss to ask – why is this keyboard here!??

notes: 
1.
This is true for most of the cities, and is not a comparison between life at a European city and an Indian dwelling in the outskirts. In fact Italy holds a lot of natural life in the outskirts.
2. Mayflys are aquatic insects where the immature stage occurs in fresh water (called naiads). The adults are short-lived, maybe as little as a few hours to a day or two, depending on the species. This mayfly photographed from Hokkaido, Japan

38 Responses

  1. WOW!!!! I so agree with ‘We would surely miss to ask – why is this keyboard here!??

    The size difference is amazing!!

  2. Hey man, that shot of the reservoir in one of your comments, its awesome!! Ace shot that!

    And you’re in an eternal love affair with these insects and nature and…and…and… You’re the kind of person who’d love to settle down somewhere in the Canadian wilderness amidst those astounding natural setting or in some bushy Australian outback, with all these ‘friends’ of yours are free on the move.. aren’t you? Italy is not your forte, is it? I think it is evenly and densely populated like our Kerala, am I right? And so seems Japan…

    Well, you plan to move anytime? (just casual talk ok? ) 🙂 🙂

    • rocksea says:

      I know you and your friend Patrick shooed away all the snakes from Ireland. We are planning for some snake rehabilitation in the european countries 😉

      Poor me…wild – bushy days and nights are of course my dream, but I would be satisfied with the environment in Kerala – may be not in the core of the city. Kerala still holds a lot of its “pristine” environment, and I will look out for that.

      Yes we will settle back in India within a few years. Seriously!! 😀

  3. Swaram says:

    Oh this is so true and beautifully written!

    U hv captured the mayfly so well!

    Ur son’s name ‘pratyahara’ – I luved it! So meaningful n unique name!

  4. rocksea says:

    bindu, marco & rabia, thanks for your feedback!

  5. Urmi says:

    I liked your blog very much. I appreciate for your wonderful post and the lovely picture of the dragonfly.
    You are welcome in my blogs.

  6. rabia says:

    For the first time in my life, I am seeing this mayfly. Its beautiful. No doubt, a small wonder.

  7. We are just 3-4 km from where you live, but I can’t recognise myself in your city. I did see dragonflies in our park and so much more, including some things similar to those beautiful colourful insects that you had posted. Can’t say that I appreciate snakes or insects much though after looking at your pictures, I can appreciate them a little bit more. I hope that we can have you with us soon and then we go out for a picnic lunch in the park full of all kinds of insects! 🙂

    • rocksea says:

      Yes once the baby and the mom are on the road, we would love to be with those dragonflies and you guys 😀

      I am happy that your appreciation level on the snakes and insects have gone up 🙂 Your monster avatar does show that!!

  8. Kanak says:

    I grew up in a small town amidst the most beautiful natural surroundings. I can relate to your feelings about how important it is for children to understand nature better.

    Great shot of the Mayfly. I don’t think I’ve seen this insect before. I’ve read that in Greek it’s known as “ephemera” and it’s from here that we get the word for short-lived—ephemeral.
    Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. Great to have you stop by.

    • rocksea says:

      Hey Kanak, I had missed the connection between the term “ephemera” and the short life of the mayflies. Thanks for the information! Yes, the mayfly belongs to the order “ephemeroptera”; which essentially means short-lived wings.

  9. Happy Kitten says:

    nd after all these years in Kuwait my thoughts still travel in a jiffy to the lovely place that I grew up… and when one has to close the door and windows.. it just kills the soul… but you have a choice to see nature in the outskirts of the city and we do that when we go on our annual vacation.. nd for the kids everything is a novelty..

    I liked Abhilash’s choice.. but such decisions are hard to take….

    • rocksea says:

      Happy Kitten, it is terrible to know that you and your kids get a chance to connect with nature once a year only (that must be your annual vacations to India, right?)! Are there parks or small, preserved (regularly watered) jungles there in Kuwait?? Probably they wont hold much natural life due to the hot temperatures there…?

      I remember once going to a small island in the Maldives. There case is similar to you as it is a geographical situation. It is a small speck of an island in the Indian Ocean, and much of the population there haven’t seen any animals, or even cows or goats; and they don’t have zoos. Fortunately, they have a lot of marine life around, and occasional bird visitors.

      • Happy Kitten says:

        Rocksea I shouldnt discredit the efforts that Kuwait has done.. it does have greenery (trees and shrubs) and parks too… but as u said the heat does not allow much to survive.. there are pigeons and our balcony does bring in a small birds and there are plenty of stray cats too.. but nothing can be compared to what we got used to in Kerala (taken for granted and without any care.. one should say)

  10. Love the mayfly shot (?! never heard of the name earlier , for me all flies are flies , thanks for enriching my grey cell) As far city life , am happy to have a huge greenery space behind my apartment! 🙂

    • rocksea says:

      Mayflies are in India too, but less studied or observed. I read that the mayflies are pollution–sensitive. This means if mayflies are in or around the water, the water should be of a good quality.

  11. Love mayflies! Nice shot!

  12. Mridula says:

    And yet we have to choose the city so many times …

  13. bindu says:

    the picture from air is awesome!

  14. bindu says:

    I remember reading somewhere that if there are dragon flies around, that means the ecological balance is alright. Not sure whether a mayfly can be categorized as dragonfly, but the balance seems to be alright 🙂

    Seriously, I pity our kids. I’d posted some memories of my childhood a few days back and was thinking my kids will never have those kind of holidays.

    • rocksea says:

      Dragonflies are one of the oldest species on earth. Since they have adapted to survive until now, probably their presence means something can still survive :O

      Bindu, thanks for reminding on sighting dragonflies – as I don’t remember seeing a single dragonfly anywhere in this city, either in summer or winter. May be there are a few in the larger parks, but I don’t remember…

  15. rocksea says:

    a nature vs civilization image from our archives:

    nature & civilization

    Location: Somewhere around the east coast of India. Aerial snap from Air India.

  16. rocksea says:

    vempally, hope we will be able to preserve what we have…

  17. Vempally says:

    Good pic and thought. We had all those in Kerala but…

  18. Neelima says:

    I can totally relate to this. I grew up in University Quarters which was full of greenery and natural beauty! we had a ball of a time playing under the banyan trees, climbing the mango trees and what not.
    But now we stay in some apartments and i feel so sad for all the kids. They have no chance at all to feel the nature connection.

    • rocksea says:

      adults and kids alike – miss the nature connection now, among the rising apartments. at least we had a chance to live through those nature-filled days when we were young. we are planning to get back to “life” sometime soon!

  19. Great picture! Yesterday, there was a spider sitting on my keyboard… I was to busy screaming ‘eeeeek! a spider’ to photograph it :p

    • rocksea says:

      hehe. am yet to meet a person who has been bitten by a spider! sometimes they used to run over me while i slept…long time back … at my home!! and i loved the sort of scary feeling 😛

  20. Andy says:

    Powerful image showing nature and modern technology. Great article too. I agree seems these days humans spend more time in front of a computer then we do outside enjoying nature!

    • rocksea says:

      Yes we spend more time with non-living things rather than living things. Then, even if we intend to spend time with nature and other living things, it can be a hard task as you don’t usually get to see the rest of the life in a city.

  21. bindu says:

    So true! We really do miss all that overseas. I especially hate it when I have to close all door and windows to turn on the a/c to combat the extreme desert heat or the cold of the winter.

  22. Abhilash says:

    I missed some of your previous articles.

    You said right and the comparison between city and rural villages with respect to greenary, birds, flies is true.

    Even in my case I feel Kerala a calm, beautiful and lovely place as compared to maharashtra where I spent my life. That was the reason I am not convinced to leave this place though I have better oppurtunities…

    • rocksea says:

      Some people assume the quality of life is in the human facilities and comfort and luxuries, which comes often with urban life. Some people on the other hand, assumes quality of life is more about the environment around, the fresh air you breath, and the celebration of life.

      You are right in your decisions.

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