It was December 25, Christmas for most, but not for me! I was going to my village to enjoy my vacation. Here in Indian villages, farmers celebrate a very peculiar festival called “vela amavasya,” which means “when is the new moon?”. On this day farmers worship their farms. One of the luckiest trees in the farm gets the honor of having the ritual under it, and it is intricately decorated!

It was a shrill, cold morning, with cool winds and beautiful farms alongside the lake.

The colorful birds were distracting me a lot. I saw many windmills, massive in height, spinning in slow motion with their three blades. It was kind of hypnotizing, making me feel drowsy when I looked at them. I hadn’t come to the farm to sleep, so I went away from the sight. Soon, the ritual started, and after that a delicious meal was served to everyone. I ate till my tummy screamed, “No; no more food!” I just slept there, Kumbhakarna style! Kumbhakarna is a monster from Indian mythology who always loved sleeping. I was conquering my dreams, when suddenly I felt someone was tickling me. My dreams were disturbed and I woke up to see who it was. And when I woke up, I found the cutest creature on this earth, our buffalo’s calf, Bhola (meaning innocent in Hindi).

I was very happy to meet him and luckily he didn’t keep his leg on me when I was sleeping. I played with him, trying to pull him. While pulling him, I fell down but the kind grass saved me! Bhola ran away out of my sight, but I was still thanking the grass.

Soon I discovered a different world in this world! I mean, I found something really exciting. I sat there and observed the plants, the animals, and the cozy weather; the grass was dancing, and the roses and bumblebees were doing a couple’s dance. The fog had covered the farm and the shivering birds squeaked with beetles and performed an orchestra, making the atmosphere even more wonderful.

I also found ants greeting each other and grasshoppers teasing them. Everyone watches World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), but here I enjoyed FGW — Farm Goat Wrestling! I also saw tailor birds weaving clothes, I mean homes for their young ones. The scenario I saw that day was nature at its best for me.

Try to recall our childhoods. Whenever we were asked, “What is nature?” we had only one boring answer: “plants, animals...etc.” But nature is more than this. Many people except farmers miss immersing themselves in nature. Even in my community people think trees are to be cut down to enjoy their fruits, flowers are to be plucked, animals are to be shooed away. But those who experience being one with nature even once will not be able to separate themselves from it.

How do we feel when someone hurts us? It’s our luck that trees don’t have minds and hands, or else they would have made us extinct by now!

So nature is giving us a fair warning, and we should humbly submit to it.