A tiny spark that disappears if you blink, suddenly reappearing somewhere else.
Surrounded by the fragrance of moist earth, the twinkling with a orange glow seems almost surreal in the cool monsoon night.
You stare and suddenly there are many more of those tiny lights glittering about.
Fireflies! :)
My first encounter with fireflies was when I was about 4-5 years old, and although I don't remember much from times back then, I can clearly remember standing in our balcony after dinner and looking out for fireflies with my father. We used to have a firefly spotting contest and I used to pester him with lots of questions on light, sky, night, the moon, why the flies glow, how the stars twinkle, blah blah, the usual questions kids demand an explanation for and he used to patiently try his best to explain the workings of the universe to me...:)
Then I didn't think much about them, couldn't spot them that often after we moved homes, and our new home didn't have such a huge open space nearby...
So they were a reserved sight on the occasional monsoon trips/train journeys where you could spot them just for a moment or two.
Much later, during hostel days, as I walked back late nights to H11, they became a regular sight once again. This time around, I spotted a few glow worms on tree roots as well...It was almost magical...Fireflies and glow worms pottering about on cold windy rainy nights. :)
Of late, when I travel by trains frequently to Mumbai, there's a patch just before Palasdari station that has lots of fireflies flitting about. And the train almost always stops by for a signal here. The twinkling sight makes me super nostalgic...and I've started taking the train's stop and their being there almost for granted, a part of my journey home... :)
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