Thanks to the Artemis 2 mission recently, we have had some delightful images of how our home planet, the Earth looks from space. A blue beautiful marble against a dark backdrop, our Earth looks vulnerable and lonely.

But what those images do not reveal is the magic that brims within – of an intricate, interdependent relationship, between so many species and ecosystems, that holds a million tales. The land with its diversity of flora and fauna is in truth a wonderland.

What would an alien see if it lands here? Let us see.

A high blue roof with some white wisps of cloud, a reddish-brown ground to which clings a thousand green creatures, some bearing colourful adornments, some laden with heavy and light pods, some waving gaily and some looking stark and detached. And around these green lifeforms fly small colourful bodies, making a lot of sound like chatter or song.

A giant of another moving life seems to be content feeding on the ground and helping itself to some pods. One kind has two large protrusions, while another has a thin, long neck. Some smaller forms race around like playing games while a golden black striped creature moves majestically in this garden. Different sizes and shapes of moving bodies are basking in the warmth of the yellow light up in the roof. A bit further and there is a gurgling liquid which seems to be tasty to some of the life forms that take a sip now and then or even plunge into it.

Off in the distance the ground rises into what looks like dunes in shades of blue. Venturing further, the alien finds more geometrical structures arising from the ground, some small, some rising high up with tiny square pegs all over. Moving all around on the ground now are some crafts, carrying some life forms within. There seem to be so many of this kind now, with arms and legs and standing upright unlike the other forms. The green creatures seen before are nowhere here, nor the tiny flying forms. All the sound is that made by the crafts.

Going even further the alien sees an endless stretch of liquid splashing around. Here too are the creatures seen inside the crafts earlier. Here they have different crafts carrying them on the liquid that somehow looks the same blue as the roof above. And there, what a huge creature that is which pops out of the liquid, does a twirling dance and dives inside again.

The next stop shows a vast stretch of land with nothing on it, just sand. Nothing seems to live here. But wait, what is that thing that emerged from under the sand and scurried away? Faraway some tall creature with a long neck and humped back was carrying the creature from the craft on its back!

The air was cool to breathe, no filters needed like back home. Must be something magical in the air that kept all this life going.

Still some distance away, and the ground is covered in a cold white substance. The air has changed so much from the first scene to here. So many lands on one land! So many creatures of so many shapes and sizes. Never having seen such diversity, the alien wonders why it was sent to rescue this planet.

From whom?

What do YOU see when you look around? Do you see magic? Do you see the colours of sunset, or hear the whistle of the bulbul caught in the concrete jungle? Ever seen a bud blossom into a flower and marvelled? When the cloud bursts and sends down the torrents, have you spared a thought on how perfect it all is? On a hot day, when you walk to the shade of a tree have you sent up a word of thanks to the guardians of life on the planet?

What is Earth? Just a rock at that perfect distance from the sun? With a perfect atmosphere that protects all life on it? Can you take the bird out of the picture of earth, or the tiger from the forest? Remove the sand or drain the rivers to find earth? Or, is it the BIG picture comprising the land and hills, rivers and seas, forests and deserts and grasslands, animals and humans, is that the Earth? Our perfect home that we do not value in our chase for imagined success dreams around piling up stuff that we really don’t need?

What does earth mean to you? Write in to us.