The Sound That Leads Me to Childhood Memories
its hard to find these cicadas as they are perfectly camouflaged and make such powerful sound.
There are places we remember through photographs, and there are places we remember through sound. For me, home begins with the chorus of cicadas.
As a child, every school holiday meant an overnight bus journey from Bangalore to my grandparent’s house in Sringeri. I would drift in and out of sleep as the bus wound its way through Karnataka. As we approach Chikkamagaluru, a familiar sound would begin to rise above the silence of the night the faint hum of cicadas would begin and turn into a deafening buzz filling the air. I didn’t know what they were then. I only knew that when I heard them, we were close. Their song meant the journey was almost over, and my grandparent’s home was just around the corner.
Years have passed. My grandparents are no longer there, but my parents have returned to farm in Malenadu. Today, it is once again the sound of cicadas that welcomes me. The road is different, life is different, but that chorus remains unchanged a reminder that some things continue to anchor us, no matter how much life moves on.
the circle of life
I noticed a cicada lying still on the ground. Its song had ended. I gently picked it up, admired the delicate patterns on its wings, and wondered how many years it had spent hidden beneath the soil before its brief life above ground. Then I returned it to the earth, where its journey had begun.
Cicadas spend most of their lives underground as nymphs, feeding on plant sap. They do not have chewing mouthparts, instead, they use a long, straw-like beak to pierce plant tissues and drink xylem. The famous periodical cicadas of North America remain underground for 13 or 17 years before emerging in spectacular numbers. The cicadas of the Western Ghats follow different life cycles, but they too spend far longer beneath the soil than they do above it. As adults, they continue to feed on sap from the twigs and branches of trees during their brief lives above ground.
When they finally emerge, they climb onto tree trunks, shed their old skins, unfold their wings, and begin the short adult chapter of their lives. Most adults live only four to six weeks. The sound we hear is produced only by the males, who use specialised structures called tymbals on their abdomen to create their unmistakable chorus in search of a mate.
Although we notice them mostly for their song, cicadas quietly contribute to the health of the forest. Their underground tunnels help aerate the soil, improve water movement, and recycle nutrients, supporting the ecosystems they call home.
Malenadu is part of the Western Ghats, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Scientists continue to discover and describe new cicada species from these forests, reminding us how much there is still to learn about the landscapes many of us simply call home.
Every place has its own soundtrack. For me, the song of the cicadas will always mean one thing You’re almost home.