Nature is around us

Sana B Khan

It’s in the chirping of birds amidst the blaring horns on the street, it’s in the butterflies that find your home garden and make it their own, it’s in the little peepal sapling growing through the cement wall.

When you go out for a walk, and if you really try to “see” it, you will always find Nature trying to connect with you. Sometimes, it’s a leaf falling on your head and sometimes it’s a bird that is flying by.

But what happens when you can’t “see” the Nature around you?

It’s simple, you see with your heart.

Working with students with visual impairment reminded me that what our eyes do for us is necessary, but if our hearts are closed, everything becomes blurry.

I always tell my students that the world around us – the birds, the trees, the insects – is always finding a way to reach us. All we need to do is to keep our hearts open to the experience.

For a person with visual impairment, the changes in the colours of trees, the discipline of ants as they go home, the bright colour of the jarul flowers might be difficult to see. But these things are not difficult to perceive.

As their teacher, it became important to me that my students also perceive the beautiful world around us. And so I began helping them build a connection with Nature. I remember the first time I brought a dead moth into our classroom. Before I could finish saying, “See, this is a dead insect, let’s explore it,” of the 11 students only three remained. The fear that the word “keeda” brought on, made them run out of the class, and at such speed that it still makes me laugh.

Since then, we have been doing everything possible to bridge this gap between us and Nature. We climb the jarul trees, pick up leaves every season to explore the changes in that tree, hug the peepal tree to see its girth, and most importantly, we don’t run away when dead insects are brought into the classroom.

A few weeks ago, my student came running with something in his hand, “Ma’am, dekho kya mila?” I am sure you will all agree that when students say these words, our heart skips a beat, because children can find anything. But this time, my dear student had found a butterfly. A bushbrown that came into his classroom, fluttered by his ear, and sat on his sweaty palms.

I was the happiest when I saw the butterfly resting in his palms; it reminded me of the 11 students who had run away a year ago, when they heard the word ‘insect’. Today, they all sat down to discuss butterflies and moths.

Our eyes allow us to see the world, but only an open heart can perceive it.

Note: I would like to thank ‘The Victoria Memorial School for the Blind’ for all their support in making learning fun and accessible.

The author is a special educator working with students with visual impairment.She can be reached at sanadoesntmail@gmail.com.