Butterfly Vesak

Mother came out to the garden and called, “Hiran, Hiran, where has this child gone?” “Amma, he is on the landing of the woodshed,” replied Hiran’s Surangi akka. “I hope he won’t fall through the wooden floor with all his jumping about.” “No Amma, he is in his latest fad, cutting and fixing bamboo sticks.” “Bamboo,” said mother,“It’s February, and Vesak is still far away.” “Don’t you know Malli?” “Please, Duwa, do go and call him.” “Ok,” replied Surangi and she went down the garden path.

She climbed the wood shed ladder and stepped onto the wooden landing. There were
bamboo sticks everywhere, in fixed contraptions, some in thin cylindrical forms, some spread out frames
and there was Hiran, bending over two packing cases on top of which were all sorts of things, knives, thin saws, bottles of glue, string and other such things.

“Amma is calling you and if you don’t hurry you will get a good scolding,” said Surangi. Hiran looked up irritated.“But why?” “I don’t know Mr. But Why, hurry and go down.” Hiran did that. Yes, it was February and surprisingly Hiran was getting ready for Vesak. But he didn’t tell that to the family. He had attended a lecture on butterflies, last December, and became interested in the fragile insects.

From that day onwards, he had been pouring over butterfly books and finding out more on
butterflies. He had finished an essay on butterflies too, in Grade Seven in school. In December, he had got the idea of doing butterfly lanterns for Vesak to hang among the usual Vesak lanterns. That’s why, every afternoon he disappeared onto the landing of the woodshed and was busy there.

Once he got the bamboo sticks in length he could cut them into any size. Then he made the head and body frames of butterflies in all sizes. Next was the difficult part, making cases of spread out wings and standing up wings. First he discussed with an old handyman of theirs and tried out a couple of frames. So that’s why he was hard at work getting everything ready in time. By the end of March he had almost all the frames ready.

By the time the national New Year was over in April and the visitors had left, Hiran was back at his hobby again. This time the landing of the woodshed was strewn with the bamboo cases and also coloured tissue and oil paper. Hiran thought he would use coloured oil paper and cellophane paper to cover the frames so that they wouldn’t perish if they got wet in the rain. He had a long task to get through
Diligently he worked on and there emerged colourful butterflies in different sizes. The cases were pasted with coloured oil paper and some were of cutwork and some had coloured dots and patterns, gradings and shadings just like the colourful butterflies of Lanka.

On the undercase of the butterflies, Hiran had left an opening to fit a thin wired bulb. Soon they were in the month of May. The day before Vesak day, Hiran with the help of the handyman and other friends, hung over fifty butterflies on the trees in between Vesak lanterns that were all white. He got an electrician to come and he wired the entire set of coloured butterflies and the white lanterns.

Everyone in the house, from his parents to the cook, including old Aunt Mabel, commended Hiran’s effort and said the garden was looking happy and bright. All were agog to see the garden at night time. When evening faded and night time arrived, Hiran impatiently turned on the electric switch and the
butterflies shone amidst the white lanterns. The garden was a veritable fairyland. There was so much
excitement in the house. Surangi had phoned her friends and they all came to see it plus more cousins. Everybody congratulated Hiran who smiled happily.

Little cousin Anomi who was 4 years old, was gazing at the trees and when asked why, she was staring at the butterflies so much, she said she was waiting for the butterflies to fly away. The next day dawned and Hiran dressed himself in white and was ready to go to the temple early morning for Vesak services. The family performed the rituals the whole day and then they all wended home in the evening to see the garden festooned once again.

That evening, the crowds passing their road, stopped to watch this festival of lights and ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ looking at gleaming butterflies and lanterns. The morning after Vesak day, Hiran dressed quickly and ran to the garden to see how the lanterns and the butterflies had fared during the night. His handiwork was swaying prettily in daylight too.

But, what a surprise, the garden was full of real live butterflies flitting from flower to flower. They were hovering around the shoeflowers and the araliya, as well as the atteriya tree which had blossomed in white star like flowers. It was as if the magic of Hiran’s butterfly lanterns had lured the real ones and the garden looked like a butterfly park.