The big picture that Lily paints

"Come, come, come and see," said Lily excitedly to me when I was busy making phulkas in the kitchen. I dropped what I was doing and followed her out of the house. She took me to the bathroom drain behind the house and pointed to a fat caterpillar moving about in it. "Look at the colour! See its eyes!" she exclaimed with all the thrill of a child having made a great discovery.

Lily is our 65-year-old maid who loves nature and finds all creatures interesting. Yesterday she brought us a veiled lady mushroom she had found in the garden. A little while earlier, she had pointed out a praying mantis in a bucket left in the garden, and now she was showing me a caterpillar.

When sweeping the yard, she is apt to find a brightly coloured snake, a bird's nest, or some pretty wildflower that has bloomed in a corner. She animatedly narrates the activities of the fruit bats in the mango tree at our gate and how they fight and jostle for perches.

The other day, her sharp and curious gaze spotted a baby monitor lizard at the foot of a teak tree in our backyard. She fetched me at once to see the beautifully camouflaged reptile, which I am sure I could never have spotted if she hadn't pointed it out.

Thanks to her, I have watched a sunbird collect cobwebs for nesting from under the eaves of the roof, a crow pheasant kill a green vine snake, a juvenile rat snake forage among firewood for small frogs, and many other interesting things.

A fascination for nature is something she and I have in common. I don't mind if her chores are completed at a snail's pace because she makes me constantly aware of the other living things we share the earth with. She paints a big picture and makes me realise how we are only one of the earth's denizens. She is a compassionate and cheerful soul who brings colour and wonder to our humdrum existence.

She shares her food with stray cats and dogs. She keeps coconut shells filled with water in various places in our backyard for stray creatures to quench their thirst. Her own house is home to several abandoned cats and dogs. She sings constantly while working, usually hymns and prayers, though occasionally she breaks into a Bollywood song. The only time the constant smile left her face for a few days was when she lost her beloved brother to cancer. It was a depressing time for us to see Lily sad and glum, going silently about her chores. I missed her cheerful chatter and singing.

Then, one day, from a distance, I heard Hare Rama, Hare Krishna and I wondered if she had started to sing bhajans instead of hymns. I came near and heard her go, Dum maro dum. Our cheerful Lily was back!