A Heart To Heart Chat With My Daughter.

A heart to heart chat with my daughter

My daughter returned yesterday after a week long vacation. I was asleep when she arrived at some unearthly hour. We met this morning. She had a look at me and got alarmed. She gave me a comforting hug and asked me not to worry as everything would become alright.

‘What is going to be alright?’ I asked her.

‘Everything that has made your face double it’s size’

‘Double?’ I asked her and trotted to the large mirror. I did notice some increase in size but ‘double’ was a bit of exaggeration.

We had moved to our new house a few months back and I was not feeling quite happy with it. ‘There is not a single lizard here and I am stuck for a subject, I told her.

‘This is the problem with you, dad. Your mind refuses to work if there is no lizard in sight. But you occasionally wrote about dogs and cockroaches. Are they also absent?’

‘There is nothing here except a burly looking watchman at the door. He can never substitute for a lizard’

‘This is silly dad. The world is full of beautiful things. They are so inspiring that no writer will be starved for a subject’

‘I can write only about lizard and an occasional stray dog. They are none here’

‘Get diverted dad. Write about the chirping birds or the lovely flowers for a change’

‘But I specialise in beards. You can’t ask your cardiologist to pull out a dead tooth’

‘Do you think you have expertise about only lizards?’

‘I grew with them in my childhood. Of course, there were sparrows too but they have vanished. That leaves me only the lizards to pursue my literary activity’

‘You must be happy about the absence of the loathsome lizards here’

‘No, I am not. I feel lost without them. I have studied about them all my life which is all going waste here. I awfully miss their clicking noise’

‘It is one of the most stupid noises that any living being can make. Listen to the cuckoo and you will understand what I mean’

‘If lizards can fly, they will make a lot sweeter noise. Try sitting in the same place for hours together and your noises become rarer and less musical’

‘Don’t they frighten you perched on the ceiling right above your head?’

‘No. On the contrary it helps me to go into a reverie. I start meditating if the lizard is upside down or me. Lizards help me to understand all about perspectives’

‘It is strange that you are pulling a long face because there are no lizards around’

‘You will understand if you are a writer and you specialize in lizards’

‘I even went around the pet shops in the city looking a lizard but none sells them’

‘So what do you propose to do now?’

‘I am trying to convey my anguish about their not being around through telepathy’

‘Do they also know all these mind tricks?’

‘I bet they do. See how they mesmerize an insect before they swallow them.’

‘Now that they are not here, what are you going to do?

‘Oh, they’ll land here eventually. Until then, I can’t sleep peacefully. I am afraid of insects and lizards protect me from them’

‘I wish you luck dad. Happy lizarding, I mean, listening to you’

 

My dear Satchi
My family life is all about lizards, cats, dogs and such lively creature. I have had several heated discussions with my wife about my habit of sitting face to face with a lizard for God knows how long!
It is not a swollen face as would make a medico happy. It was a long face caused by anguish about the missing lizards.
Sri

 

@Viswamitra
My dear Viswa

I can write about birds but before I can study them in detain through the window in my room, they fly away. Before they fly away, they dirty my windows as much as possible! On the contrary, lizards stay put in a place for long enough to study them in detail. This is the main reason for my preference for Liz

Don't worry, they will come eventually the moment they find my hideout. I have written earlier too that only cockroaches can survive a global nuclear war. That's the reason for my interest in them. It's another thing that they may survive a nuclear war but not the broom stick of my wife. She beats them savagely until she makes sure that they have moved over to their next avatar!

Even this discussion has almost restored my face to its normal size. If I remove my beards, it will shrink even more but I don't want to do it because of my apprehension that my lizards cannot recognize me!
Sri

 

@shyamala1234
My dear Syamala

I watch them alright as I have explained to Viswa but I find it difficult to study them in detail. Only highly involved ornithologists like Salim Ali can do it. As regards cuckoos , I do not have much regard for them for this reason.

Lizards are holy for Hindus. Have you listened to this story?
'Two disciples of Sage Gautham used to fill Pooja vessel regularly with water. One day, a lizard fallen into the Pooja vessel which was filled with water. Unknowingly, disciples placed this vessel in front of the sage. Gautham Rishi noticed the lizard in the vessel while offering prayers to the Lord. Sage angered for their disciples ignorance and cursed them to become lizards.

As advised by the Sage, two disciples reached Kanchipuram and stayed here as lizards for a long. Disciples got relieved from their curse, when Indra who was cursed by Goddess Saraswathi, came here as a elephant and prayed for Lord Varadaraja. Disciples attained salvation but their mortal coil remained here. It is believed that who prays Lord Varadaja and touches these two lizards on their way out will be relieved from all chronic diseases.'- Quora

See them being worshiped in the famous Varadaraje Temple in Kanchi
Sri