I am working on some very smart things to say here. Really. Meanwhile, there's 
The little boy went to the corner of the hut and fished out a matchbox from his school bag. He had not told anyone about his secret pet: A Ponvandu*. The colorful insect emerged out of the matchbox when he slid the lid off; its body iridescent as it reflected the morning sunlight in myriad colors in a thousand angles. A bonsai version of an impossible aurora borealis. The wings covered a heavy body. It would have to think twice before flying. A peacock among the insects. The wings resembled - indeed more than just resembled - the shields of an ancient warrior. The wings defended the ponvandu; they attracted mates; they dazzled in the expressions of their sexuality. It bore into trees and lived on a diet of dead wood. The ponvandu was almost 1 1/2 inches long - the cratered head and wings separated by a precipitous wedge that looked sinister. The ponvandu would snap its head against the edge of the wings if anything tried crawling into the wedge - a survival instinct to protect the exposed soft body underneath. The boy prodded the ponvandu making it snap its neck. And giggled.
*Ponvandu - Tamil name for Jewel Beetle.
Comments
And I can only think of the radio jingle for the detergent!
Posted by: Anand | February 16, 2007 10:27 AM
Ponvandu, Ponvandu kaetu paarunga.
Dont know if you have heard that popular ad jingle....
Natarajan Sridharan
Posted by: Natti | February 17, 2007 12:10 AM
I remember the jingle. When I searched for ponvandu in google, I was mildly dismayed to get all soap and no science. Perhaps, we could persuade google that there's more to ponvandu than detergents by linking to this post elsewhere.
Posted by: Selva | February 17, 2007 7:31 AM
Looks like it is already happening in Google.
Your blog is now the second link.
Just work a little more on site visits and we will get there.
Posted by: Natarajan | February 18, 2007 11:12 PM