Being part of a tropical landscape and having adopted a tiny patch of land where we are trying to find a balance of human life while allowing ourselves to be observers in the regeneration of a forest, we encounter new lifeforms and processes, on a daily basis. Nature has so many facets that we have accepted we will not be able to observe in one human life. But we try our best to immerse and allow nature to dictate our reactions to it. In that attempt, I wanted to pick an aspect of earth that in many ways is closest to earth – A Termite Mound.
I watch it almost on a daily basis, sometimes observing its contours, the texture of its surface, the shades of colors, and the very life of a seemingly lifeless mound of earth. I have watched it shrink, erode, and change its shape and size as it journeys through the changing seasons. The most miraculous time is when we look at it from a distance and suddenly see the dry mound getting moist and wet. As we go close to it we see how the thousands of termites are moving in and out of it, silently rebuilding it with the moist earth they carry from deep inside of it. As a human observer, we have no way of knowing if they work in shifts, how their teamwork works, for they carry on all through the day and within a few days, the dry and parched mound regenerates into a fresh life form, a fresh size, shape, and texture, with a new energy ready to host other life forms.
As we watch, the termites have retreated back to their safe haven, as silently as they had awaken to rebuild their home, the mound of earth that propels us to study it further. It has motivated us to educate ourselves about its architecture, its significance, its varied amazing properties that tells a story unlike any other. A perfect example of Earth rebuilding, recreating, regenerating itself, as the arrogant human watches and wonders, still unable to understand and grappling with the simple question, How?