Mosquitoes have been made villains to me. As young, I heard a musical ringing sound over my ear when I retired to bed. That sound quickly shifted to the other ear! It is produced by nobody but by our mighty mosquito flying around. Though its name in Tamil language, 'Kosu' is used also to mean an easier work or a small sized person, the mosquito still remains the strongest giving nuisance and causing diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya and Malaria. In 2006, when there was Chikungunya epidemic in India, the electric mosquito killing bat (zapper) was introduced to us by the increased population of these mosquitoes.
As I rose one day early in a winter morning and walked through the meadow, I found the indecent behaviour of somebody spiting out on the grass. There was the spittle on the leaf blade of the grass clasping it around. I was irritated about it and walked carefully avoiding it. Later I wondered to know from an article in a daily that it is an act by an insect's nymph and not by a human!
We usually see that from egg caterpillar comes out, butterfly grows out of it and fly away. But in a type of Salamander (an Amphibian) its growth into an adult is hindered and it is stopped in its larval stage itself. This larva starts also to reproduce! This animal is Axolotl (Ambystroma mexicana, Mole Salamander, 'Mexican walking fish,' 'Waterdog').
If you go near a tree and a blue bird flies out with a high pitched sound startling you, it might be a Kingfisher. Here in urban South India we frequently spot this tree kingfisher, called as White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon fusca, 'Meenkotthi' in Tamil).
I had wondered in my younger days that how banana leaves are seen coming out of wayside dunes. In closer view I found out that they grew out of corms that were disposed off from the nearby plantations. This Banana tree (Musa paradisiaca, Sweet banana, Dessert banana, 'Vazhlaippazhlam' in Tamil) yields the fruits that we, the humans, apes, elephants and many other animals relish on. It is not a tree but a herbaceous plant!
I had often seen Dragonflies fly low over ponds touching the water surface now and then with their ends. And I have also seen them flying in pairs one behind the other, and wondered about them. These are the reproductive displays by virtue of their nature. We shall see about this interesting displays here.
Last spring, I spotted a smallest bird of about one inch length fly past my guava tree. I wondered about it that I have discovered a tiny bird myself. Recently I was in my garden standing before the Periwinkle plant that was in its full bloom. To my amazement that tiny bird I discovered earlier came into the scene again; it visited each flower; collected nectar like a hummingbird and flew away!
Each morning as it dawns, we see different colours displayed by Nature before our eyes. But at night's darkness we don't see anything colourful around us. But we can get here our environment coloured, and get also our skies coloured - by using Fireworks! (Pyrotechnics). Attracted by the colours produced by the fireworks, I tried some experiments myself then as a school student.
To have a free flow of water in channels we shall have to desilt it periodically. That is also being done in our body to have a free flow of blood to our brain. Pressure of blood flow dislodges any block such as clots or cholesterol present inside the blood vessels, or enzymes are rushed to the block's site and is dissolved by it.
