Life was beautiful

The 1980s in India were quiet times. This was before cable TV took over and much before the internet age. One had lots of spare time on hand as a kid then. Burning spiders in their webs was something one could do during summer vacations. Of course it always started with trying to find one nestling in its web.Not too much effort went into searching for one because it was simple. Three simple rules for finding a web - location,location,location ; nothing more nothing less. After that it was pretty straightforward. Spiders were malnourished back then and much unlike the behemoths shown in the movies ; Very reassuring indeed.

Dragonflies were another favorite target. Catching them and tying their tails to watch them fly was a great source of satisfaction.Black ants were not spared either . But there were rules here. Fat black ants were killed but the baby ants were spared because they were supposed to be agents of God. They carried sugar from the Ganesha idol in kitchen to their homes. After reading that they were saving for a rainy day , one made sure they could get all they wanted and even tracked down and delivered food to their homes.Butterflies were caught and sought to be preserved because they were colorful and beautiful. Preserving them meant putting them together in an air-tight plastic bag all night. By morning they were all dead.

So it goes...