Hot tropical sun, leaping langurs, grumpy buffaloes, ripening fruit, monitor lizards flicking tongues, leopard’s lapping water from a nearby pond, soft bodied red bugs appearing after the first monsoon rains—and many a battle between a mongoose and cobra.  This series draws on memories of a childhood in rural India. It is a companion to an memoir essay (Remembering my Duniya) on the same subject: (https://online.ucpress.edu/joae/article/4/4/489/197612/Remembering-My-Duniya