The other day a poet was reciting a Punjabi poem on television. I can't remember much of that poem now but he was lamenting the disappearance of glow-worms from our cities. Only the first couplet of the poem remained stuck in my mind. It ran thus: "Junglaan de vich haukey bhardey, aundey nayeen/Jugnu dardey sheran de vich aundey nayeen (They sight but stay put in the jungles, never venturing this side. Afraid, glow-worms do not visit our cities any more)."Ever since I heard that couplet, I've been feeling a little uneasy. It never occurred to me earlier but I now realise that for almost 20 years I haven't seen a glow-worm around. Dark, rainy nights have come and gone but the glow-worms seem to have vanished forever.During my boyhood days, I remember, glow-worms were the most visible nocturnal creatures. We called them flies with lamps. On a dark night after the rains you could spot dozens on them in a single bush with their tail-lamps constantly blinking. One wondered why those fire-flies did notburn out or set the bush on fire.Glow-worms then were not afraid of entering the cities. They seemed to enjoy their proximity to humans. Children felt curious and were mystified by their lights.Why have they stopped visiting our cities now? Why have they severed their ancient links with humans? Do they find urban savagery worse than jungle savagery? Have our cities become so unsafe for them that they find jungles more conductive to their survival? Perhaps they don't want to go the dodo way!I am vaguely reminded of a gambling scene in Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native. It is a dark night. A gambling game is in progress. The gambling is going on in the not very bright light of a lamp in a jungle. Suddenly the lamp gets blown out and cannot be relit as it has run out of oil. The two gamblers think of a novel way to make some light to keep the game going. They go collecting glow-worms and put them inside the chimney of the lamp. They collect quite a fistful. That gives them enoughlight to resume their game. Imagine how common were glow-worms once and how rare are they now!Perhaps the world has become too dangerous a place for such fragile and delicate things as glow-worms. Their absence reminds me of something else. During spring this year flowers bloomed in the courtyard of my house but I did not see the bulbul even once! Till last year a pair of bulbuls would visit my courtyard every day as long as the season lasted.It is not only the nightingale but also the cuckoo. I didn't hear the call of the cuckoo even though the mango tree a small distance from my house stands laden with small fruit. Even the mynah has been less visible this season. Perhaps the population of glow-worms, nightingales and cuckoo has diminished. But it seems that the population of crows and kites has registered a steep rise. They seem to be everywhere.It is said that when materialism spreads its wings, it blunts the finer part of the human personality. Humans become crude and delicate things like love,romance, poetry, song, glow-worms, cuckoos and nightingales start disappearing.It may seem surprising but the three most mentioned birds in poetry, song and folkfare are not found in America. They are the cuckoo, the skylark and, the most celebrated of the trio, the nightingale. Efforts to establish these three birds in that country have not met with success. In our country it is not yet too late. Let us save our relationship with these creatures of love, romance, song and beauty while there is still time.
