Beauty lies in beholder's soul

Hindustan Times

25-05-2025

'To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower', are lines from the English poet and painter, William Blake, that have aged well. To embark on a variation on Blake's theme, it could be said that one, who can find 'beauty in a sweet, little lizzie', is possessed of a blessed soul.
Principal of the SBK Government PG College, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, and professor of Zoology, Shyam Sunder Meena, lives at the rolling edge of the Thar desert. Meena's boundless empathy for the forgotten, and often despised as 'ugly, poisonous, dangerous' creatures, is stirring. His sensitivity mists the eye because he can literally feel a lizzie's sigh. His camera rolls are dominated not by tigers, leopards and King cobras but the hoi polloi of the natural world.
The venerable professor expends much of his time observing and wondering about geckos (lizards) clinging to the walls of his home or those modest shadows slinking about in the crevices of Thar rocks. Meena's eye beholds an extraordinary aesthetic to the scale patterns of a house lizard, just as a noble lady may revel in the art and intricacy of Kashmiri embroidery. Meena has documented gecko species of the Thar displaying vivid colour changes and behavioural adaptations as temperatures vary from 55°C to near-freezing.
Meena's father dwells in an Alwar village and shares none of his son's empathy. In his nineties, the father clings onto the unscientific beliefs of the anciens rooted in hereditary hearsay. 'My father believes that a monitor lizard (Goh) is so venomous that if a human is bitten, the victim will perish at once and will not have time to even take a sip of water. I asked if he had come across any such victim of a Goh in his long life but he was unable to recall a single case. Fact is, no lizard species of India is venomous. They are misunderstood creatures. Truth is, lizards play an important, unsung role in insect / pest control and are thus an inalienable part of the Thar's complex food web,' Meena told this writer.
A spectacle from the Sukhna
Reactions to an unforeseen appearance of a spectacled cobra have evolved over the years with growing awareness of its behaviour and availability of quick-reaction rescue personnel. It is, fortunately, no longer a case of bludgeoning the cobra with a handy brick or stick.
On Wednesday at 6.30 am, Dr Rajiv Narwal, who holds charge of the Sub-divisional Civil Hospital, Kalka, was on his morning walk at Sukhna Lake. A keen wildlife photographer, Narwal enhances the joys of dawn with clicks of creatures and flowers. That day, he came across an unusual spectacle near the grand Peepul tree opposite the regulator-end gates.
'The striking snake known for its distinctive hood markings and venomous propensity drew onlookers, who took photos and videos. The sighting caused a stir with people maintaining a safe distance while capturing the rare moment. A police team that patrols on electric vehicles was informed and people sought the speedy requisition of the Chandigarh wildlife department rescue team. In the meanwhile, I fetched a long stick not to harm the cobra but to relocate the serpent so that no one suffers an accidental bite. The cobra eventually slithered into a hole leaving the spectators in awe of the encounter,' Narwal told this writer.
Delving on what the cobra must have gone through besieged by a crowd of well-intentioned people, Narwal assessed the serpent's predicament thus: 'The cobra's reaction is driven by instinct rather than complex thought. Cobras are solitary, defensive creatures and tend to avoid conflict. Encirclement by humans would have triggered a stress response. The cobra raised its hood as a classic threat display to appear larger than life and intimidate the crowd. This is an automatic response to feeling cornered or threatened by the people taking photos and videos. The snake was likely 'thinking' (in a primal sense) about finding an escape route, scanning for a gap in the crowd or eyeing cover near the Peepul to slink away and hide.'
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