Bug's Life

It is not the urban distractions that disturb the hermit.

I spent a couple of days in an abandoned Paliwal village in the desert off of Jaisalmer. I was cooped up inside a small enclosure, which I guessed was used as an animal pen (pigs or chickens), to escape the roving Border Security Force.

Impossible to stand up straight in, just enough to lie down, light came in through a few spaces in the hay as narrow laser beams, but the whole experience was exhilarating and fascinating. The microcosm became immense, filled with miniature life and drama and significance and beauty. Because I was a part of the earth, like a creature in its burrow. There was no sign of the curse of the Paliwals, or goddesses or ghosts. Rarely had I felt such love for life as therein. For contour and texture, the bug and the microbe, the twig, straw, dust. Mere conveniences and security will never compare.