The Day I Stopped and Noticed

Tanishk Chand
May 13
4 min read

As I walked back home from school on a summer afternoon, I was exhausted and bored after a long day at school. I don’t talk much in school and nor do I feel like getting involved in various activities happening there.

photo credits: mukesh kandpal

My school, Nanakmatta Public School, located near Sitarganj, is quite unusual. Every week, there are new activities led by various external resource persons around social, environmental and academic subjects. But I rarely found these interesting. Many of my classmates participate in various programs at school. I usually stay quiet and just wait for the day to end. The routine classes at school had too much theory, and I was not very interested, especially in science. Teachers mostly explained and talked, while I just listened. I did not have much interaction with others. My friends were also not regular in school, so I did not have anyone to talk to much. In class, I usually sat quietly without thinking much—just letting my mind wander or thinking about random things. I also felt a bit awkward talking to new people, so I tend to avoid joining group discussions or activities.

Normally, after coming home I used to take a nap, but that day something different happened. I was going by my usual route. The route from my school to home is a pukki bitumen-topped road that is generally not very busy. Back then, there were trees and bushes on each side, and since it was July, there was some water accumulated due to the rain. It was around 3 PM, when my school got over. The road was not crowded, so it felt quite calm compared to other places. The monsoon clouds were playing hide and seek with the sun. The patterns of shade and sun kept shifting around me. The trees also offered shade, so I decided to walk instead of using my cycle.

As I walked along, I heard some birds. Our school and village has large agricultural areas and the Red Wattled Lapwing (Tithari) is one of the most common birds. It calls through the day and night, all year round. Besides the Titeri, I did not closely observe any other bird.

photo credits: wikimedia commons

Then suddenly my eyes fell on a shiny blue butterfly. I don’t know how I noticed this butterfly. It came flying in front of me and then went and sat on a bush nearby. I think it was a Blue Tiger butterfly. It may be common in our area, but for me it was something new because I had never seen it up close before.

photo credits: wikimedia commons

When I saw it, I just stopped walking. I was standing under a tree and watching it from a distance. I did not try to go close because I don’t like disturbing any creature. I prefer to keep some distance. It was sitting for some time, then it moved to another flower, then again came back. It was flying again and again in small movements, like it was searching for something or taking nectar.

I watched it for around five minutes. During that time I noticed its pattern and colors carefully. It had black lines and blue color which looked very different to me.

Before that I had only seen butterflies in books, like how they grow and change from caterpillar to butterfly. But watching a butterfly in real life felt very different from reading books. I was observing how it flies, how it lands, and how it moves quickly from one place to another. Because of some disturbance like students passing by and noise, it flew away after some time. I tried to see where it went but I could not follow it. It just disappeared and I was left standing there for a few seconds.

At that moment, I was not thinking about anything else. I forgot that I had to go home. I was just focused on that butterfly. Normally I don’t notice such small things, but that day I gave full attention to it. One thought came to my mind that people usually try to capture these things on mobile phones, but maybe understanding nature is not about capturing it, it is more about observing it directly.

After that I started walking again and went home. But that moment was still in my mind. Even though I was tired, I did not sleep immediately after reaching home like I usually do. Instead, I kept thinking about the beautiful butterfly that I saw. I started thinking that if one small butterfly can look so different and interesting, then there must be many more things in nature which I have not seen or noticed yet. That day was not something big, but it slowly became important for me. It was like a starting point. After that, I started noticing more things around me.

Not in a very serious way, but slowly my interest started growing. I started looking at insects, birds, and small details which I used to ignore earlier.

photo credits: mukesh kandpal

I also realized that many times we pass through places without actually seeing them. That same road I used every day, but I had never noticed that butterfly before. It made me think that maybe there are many things around us which we ignore just because we are not paying attention. If I had not seen that butterfly that day, maybe nothing would have changed. I would have gone home, slept, and forgotten that day like any other normal day. But that one small moment changed the way I look at things. It made me stop and observe.

Even now, I remember that moment clearly. Not because it was something unusual, but because it was the first time I actually noticed something properly in nature. It was simple, but it stayed in my mind. After that, my interest in nature slowly started developing. After that I started looking around more properly. Not to find something rare, just to see things which I was ignoring before.