New Delhi, April 18 -- The Curry patta plant had just drunk up sudden April showers when I noticed something moving on the leaves. It was mottled, creeping, possessing a largish head-something that an onlooker is programmed to shakingly dismiss as "disgusting". Perhaps it was bird poop made runny by the rain (indeed disgusting, my mind told me). But looking again in nature often brings its own rewards. I looked again. The thing's motion was circumspect, ponderous rather than fluvial. It was the motion of a small thing with many legs making its way through a gigantic world. The thing was a caterpillar, and it was about to eat Curry pattas.

Our diminutive Curry patta plant was a breakfast champion. It stood a little crookedly in a white po...