Book: The Harmony of Bees and Other Charms of Creepy Crawlies
Author: Ranjit Lal
Published by: Speaking Tiger
Price: Rs 399
Most of us get the heebie-jeebies when we encounter creepy crawlies — worms, arachnids, bugs, cockroaches, slugs — but not Ranjit Lal. In fact, he chronicles the lives of these species with care and enthusiasm. His book thus captures the spectacular and dramatic lives of insects that are usually ignored out of fear, disgust or indifference.
Lal is meticulous in his descriptions. Not only does he go into the details of the lifestyles (and life cycles) of his subjects but he also paints a vivid, pulsating picture. So expressive are his narrations of, say, the ant-lion trapping its prey or the movements of the muscles of grasshoppers before they leap that one can almost visualise the processes. The printed words are thus transformed into a David Attenborough-esque voiceover.
Lal connects the microscopic lives of insects to the macroscopic workings of larger ecosystems. Of particular interest is his account of the life of mosquitoes, diabolical creatures that, Lal writes, kill an estimated seven million people annually. But Lal also points out the necessity of the mosquitoes’ existence: apart from being food to certain birds and animals, it is thought that the fear of mosquito-borne diseases keeps humans away from endangered and valuable ecosystems.
What makes The Harmony of Bees endearing are the anecdotes about Lal’s encounters with insects; these give the book a light-hearted, conversational touch. But this is by no stretch a frivolous personal account of bug encounters. It is packed with information about the different species of insects, their numbers, habitats, reproductive and feeding habits, and significance in human lives, and much more.
Lal possesses an almost encyclopaedic knowledge about creepy crawlies. But, more importantly, he retains a child-like wonder that transforms the book from being a compilation of facts about insects and arachnids to an adventure into the world of shadow beings.
