Minna pulu

Writer-Junior (7 years old)

One summer evening we were sitting on the porch at my thatha’s house in Coorg. I saw a glowing bug in the dark. I caught it in my hand and looked at it closely. It was a firefly. As I was looking, it stopped moving. The glow went away. Mom and I thought it was dead. I was sad. I thought I had killed it.Then suddenly it started moving. I saw the light. I was happy to see the firefly fly off to the sky.
That evening my thayi told me some fun facts about the fireflies.In kodava thakk it's called "minna pulu". Fireflies come out only in the night. They use their glow to attract other fireflies and to keep enemies away. Next summer, I will be spending many evenings in my thayi’s garden, waiting for fireflies.