Quite a few weeks ago one of my team-mates spotted me out a shrub on the sidelines of our field. These otherwise thorny menaces which had caused god-knows-how-many bleeding scratches on my ankle when we were busy stomping around the field, kicking around a ball, suddenly seemed like an alien being amidst usual life.

As a child I had read about the touch-me-nots or lojjaboti (Bengali) but cared to finally notice one after all these years. Fascinating! “I didn’t expect it to be so animal-like…” was my first reaction as I watched the tiny leaves shrivel up, up and a little bit more, almost like a worm. It’s bright purplish crimson stems seemed as if blood flowed through them.

I spent a good ten minutes or so, paying the touch-me-nots the much deserved attention but spent longer —procrastinating— penning it down on pixels.