Contrary to the general feeling, I have always found the bugs to be beautiful. I am fascinated by their colors, their numerous legs and the way they synchronize their limbs into graceful movement like those of expert dancers. 

As a child, my best bug friends were: the ladybirds. Small sweet, red colored with black polka dots, flitting across the green leaves and landing occasionally on my arm as I hovered over the plants, they were courting. I loved the way they crawled on my arm without hurting my skin. And then just opening their wings and zooming off into the blue, as I blew kisses to them. They were my little friends. But they became more sought after by our class of grade 4, when one of the girls, Wendy, announced that the ladybirds had the ability to predict the class results. We were surprised and excited and ran to the bushes to find a ladybird. 

One of the girls came back holding one, in her loosely closed fist. Wendy took the ladybird in her hand and looked at us, inviting us to get the prediction. Our final exams had finished and we were waiting for results. The kids shrank back; none had the guts to test the bug. Courageous and confident of my hard work, I came forward for the prediction. Wendy took my hand and stretched my arm and placed the petite ladybird on my upper arm. My heart beat fast, fearing the worst. She muttered some words in her mouth with her eyes closed like sages. The ladybird started crawling on my slender arm, towards the hand. Meanwhile, Wendy chanted loudly: fail, pass; fail, pass…The trick was that the word, at which the ladybird would fly off, would be the result.

A crowd of boys and girls gathered around us and waited in mischievous delight, for the worst for me. Just then as Wendy uttered, ‘Pass’, the ladybird zoomed off into the air. I jumped with delight and clapped but I could feel disappointment on the faces of my classmates! It was a revelation for me about the sincerity of my friends towards me. My joy diluted. 

All other kids were getting the predictions too, catching hold of the poor ladybirds. There was a mixed reaction to the bug-prediction as some had passed and others had failed in this bug-test. A few weeks later, the results were announced. To my delight, I stood first in my class. Others had managed good grades but some had failed too. And the uncanny thing was that the ladybird had predicted the result accurately!! 

The word got around in the school that I had stood first due to the blessings of the ladybird as I had trusted her first, ignoring the hard work I had put in for the exams! It became a ritual after that episode, to catch ladybirds after exams by the school kids. They were the revered bugs, never to be hurt or crushed as they had special powers. 

The ladybirds remained our soothsayers for the rest of the primary school years, predicting truly! Did the ladybird possess special powers or was it a sheer coincidence? Do the ladybirds know that they are the super bugs with supernatural powers? We will never know as ladybirds don’t speak, just like true sages don’t! But I do know that they kept us hopeful even when our exams went wrong. We were sure that the ladybird, with its magical power, would make the wrong answers, right, and get us passed, if it had predicted so! So childlike and innocent beliefs! But it re-enforced my belief in God through the lovely ladybirds that there is always a rainbow waiting for you, no matter what you are going through now.