Don't lose sight of the natural miracles

It started with a knocking sound in my chimney.

- NEHA SINHA

The vent, coming out of the side of my kitchen like a Gothic-style arm, had been fitted with a perforated cap to keep out animals and prevent the deaths of young ones. This seemed to attract wildlife even more: because there was indeed something in the chimney. It went bump in the night, and, in the day, it cheeped.

It's a generalisation that everything grows in the monsoon, but this is true overall. Many birds, insects and amphibians take a partner and proceed to make younglings. Everything grows by leaps and bounds-including that which is fungal and bacterial.

This summer has been a tough season of grieving for losses and making a quivering peace with our place in the world. July was the hottest month on record, according to an estimate released by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Service. In June, almost 60 people died in Bihar from the heat. Wildfires have struck Hawaii and almost 100 people have died. A huge flood came to Delhi, destroying the sense of security for many: Even houses in the Capital could be ruined by a river many had forgotten about. The thing about climate or environmental disasters is that they make you feel very small, especially when you have been technologically ensconced in the idea of being safe. But even as climate change rages and we try to make sense of an increasingly chaotic world, there is a bird in the chimney.