India, May 25 -- "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower", are lines from the English poet and painter, William Blake, that have aged well. To embark on a variation on Blake's theme, it could be said that one, who can find 'beauty in a sweet, little lizzie', is possessed of a blessed soul. Principal of the SBK Government PG College, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, and professor of Zoology, Shyam Sunder Meena, lives at the rolling edge of the Thar desert. Meena's boundless empathy for the forgotten, and often despised as "ugly, poisonous, dangerous" creatures, is stirring. His sensitivity mists the eye because he can literally feel a lizzie's sigh. His camera rolls are dominated not by tigers, leopards and King cobras but the hoi polloi of the natural world. The venerable professor expends much of his time observing and wondering about geckos (lizards) clinging to the walls of his home or those modest shadows slinking about in the crevices of Thar rocks. Meena's eye beholds an extraordinary aesthetic to the scale patterns of a house lizard, just as a noble lady may revel in the art and intricacy of Kashmiri embroidery. Meena has documented gecko species of the Thar displaying vivid colour changes and behavioural adaptations as temperatures vary from 55degC to near-freezing. Meena's father dwells in an Alwar village and shares none of his son's empathy. In his nineties, the father clings onto the unscientific beliefs of the anciens rooted in hereditary hearsay. "My father believes that a monitor lizard (Goh) is so venomous that if a human is bitten, the victim will perish at once and will not have time to even take a sip of water. I asked if he had come across any such victim of a Goh in his long life but he was unable to recall a single case. Fact is, no lizard species of India is venomous. They are misunderstood creatures. Truth is, lizards play an important, unsung role in insect/pest control and are thus an inalienable part of the Thar's complex food web," Meena told this writer....