Question

What is the significance of cobra lily in relation to the monsoon season, its beginning and end?

Answer 1

Hint: The above question is from the chapter ‘A Short Monsoon Diary’, written by Ruskin Bond. The chapter depicts a small extract of the diary written and maintained by Ruskin Bond. In his diary, Ruskin Bond describes his personal experiences during the monsoon season, the silent miracles of nature and life's little joys and regrets.

Complete answer:
 In ‘A Short Monsoon Diary’, Ruskin Bond portrays the silent miracles of nature as the mountains receive monsoon showers. The author describes the plants and animals found during the monsoon in Mussoorie vividly.

The monsoon season in Mussoorie begins around the last week of June and extends till the end of August. The cold rains are poured in October till the last darkest cloud in March which makes the sky clear for the rainbow after it hails.

The cobra lily signifies both the beginning and end of the monsoon. At the beginning of the monsoon season, it is the cobra lilies that rear first and it is in late June. During the end of the monsoon season, its seeds start to turn red.

Darlingtonia californica or California pitcher plant or cobra lily, or cobra plant, is a carnivorous plant. As a pitcher plant, it is the sole member of the genus Darlingtonia in the family Sarraceniaceae and is native to Northern California and Oregon, growing in bogs and seeps with cold running water. This plant is designated as uncommon as it rarely appears in the field.

Note: In Ruskin Bond’s diary, the author has portrayed the monsoon of Mussoorie from his viewpoint. After a long Monsoon, when the winter rain finally begins to pour, the author feels like something is missing like his friend had left him and describes every experience of weather change between two seasons in his diary. Throughout the monsoon months, the author describes nature’s beauty, the climate and how he finds the rain to be. At the start of the monsoon, the whole atmosphere gets covered in mist and besides, an uncanny silence prevails as the birds in the hill fall silent.