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As the lioness struggles to drag her prize to safety, the smell of fresh meat travels across the land, but today it doesn’t draw the usual wave of scavengers looking for the next taste. Death lurks around in the corners of this huge kingdom locked in with beauty: this is home to an extraordinary variety of plants and animals. Tiny by any comparison, butterflies are still the giants of this world, its eternal survivors. Imagine a butterfly with the most beautiful, most colourful set of wings you ever saw. The butterfly just flapped its wings; did you see that? Just the kind of sign we needed, to tell us that things had calmed down after the nightlong killing. Just a tiny flip, which you didn’t even see and which would never disturb the sleepy air of an Amazon morning. In Africa: Seen from the safe distance of a satellite, it appears to be a thrilling spectacle, but you have to be in the middle of it to know that Mother Earth is not always a gentle parent. Lorenz, not of Arabia, knows; he has seen it from up close. Ita Tornado."We are tracking it, it’s growing bigger. We have never seen anything like it here in Africa. Evacuate the town. Clear the roads, call my wife." "What?" "Forget the last part, just clear the town." "What’s happening?" "A tornado is coming your way." "A tornado? Impossible. No one saw it building up." "Well, I did, and if you don’t clear the town soon, you too will see it. It’s a biggie." "I’ll get everyone out in an hour." The Governor to the chief of police (after the weatherman hangs up the phone at the other end): "Honest, I didn’t see it building up. A tornado? In this part of the world? I wonder what caused it?" "There’s only one
man who can tell you that." "Who is he?" "Lorenz,
not of Arabia." "Where’s he these days?" "Wherever
there is chaos." "What is he?" "A mathematician, I
believe." "What has mathematics got to do with rough weather?
Let’s find someone else who can tell us about the origin of this
tornado." "I have a better idea, Sir. Let’s ask everyone who
knows to write in to Mind Games, The Tribune, or aditya@tribunemail.com."
(Help the Governor. The solutions will be carried six weeks from now) |
THERE
is chaos all around. The Amazon is peaceful as ever, its rainforests
resisting the plunder. Many of its wonders have been discovered and
named, but not all. The huge fish that leapt out of the water yesterday
to catch the prey dangling from a tree is snoozing today. The waterways
begin from the Andean peaks to the west and flow down into the Amazon
Basin.