Operation Lizard

Palleeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

My daughter’s scream shook the entire apartment and I nearly fell out of the sofa.and my wife dropped some vessel in the kitchen with a clang and rushed out.

“What’s the matter?” she asked the daughter who looked so panic stricken that she gave the impression of having seen a tyrannosaurus rex.

“Palli ( lizard)” she shouted at a lower pitch pointing to a wall.

We didn’t even look at the wall and went into action immediately.
“Rug” I shouted.

My wife who would have normally responded with :”go and get it yourself instead rushed to get one.

We closed the door of our daughter’s bedroom and covered the gap below the door with the rug..

After completing the procedure known in our home as “Operation Lizard” we looked at the wall. It was a teeny-weeny baby lizard trying to catch a even teenier-weenier insect that sent my daughter into a screaming fit.

“Phew! You made such a big fuss over that little lizard. I thought we had a crocodile on the wall” I said.

“Anytime I would have a crocodile. I just love them” said the Steve Irwin fan. “It is the lizard that I can’t stand.

“Getting crocodiles to take the place of lizards on the walls would be a tall order. They wont’ feel comfortable there. There are no two guesses on how our good neighbours, who are even scared of our gentle Labrador would react to crocs”

“And crocs would opt for us at dinnertime instead of insects. Lizards are definitely a safe option” wife said.

“They are so repulsive “ shuddered the daughter. “I don’t want them in my room"..
Her screaming fits on seeing a lizard and the “Operation Lizard” are daily routines at our house. The aim is to make the girl’s room lizard proof.

Whether it really becomes lizard proof or not she feels at ease after the operation. And never dare suggest to her that a lizard could already be in her room before the Operation Lizard is launched. A cousin who had the impunity to do so got a resounding slap from her as thanks.


As part of the operation we have to seal other possible lizard entrances too like the door connecting the daughter’s room to ours. All this severely tested our freedom of movement. To go to the loo we have to open both the daughter’s and our rooms. But she won’t let us insisting that we use the other toilet with entrance from the living room.

Going to bed was a torture. Each of us would tiptoe towards the daughter’s room so that no lizard hears us .(can lizards hear?).. quietly open the door and enter carefully avoiding stumbling on the rug and quickly close the door. We follow a similar procedure for the other doors.. Anyone other than us would have been driven nuts by all that hide and seek with lizards..

Though initially we were irritated, later we learnt to take it as a sort of amusement. A “can you spot and hoodwink the lizard” game.

I just can’t understand why quite a few people I know are scared of these harmless creatures which serve such a useful purpose by cleaning up your house of insects. It is a natural insecticide. We don’t need all those chemical sprays with them around.

A friend of mine once brought an insecticide spray and launched a battle against the cockroaches and bugs in his home. They remained hale and hearty but his health was badly affected by the spray leading to severe breathing problems.

These sprays tend to target humans rather than inspects. If you want to get rid of an unwanted relative, do use them but they just don’t work against insects. Lizards are definitely better alternatives..

But fear of the common house lizards is widespread. For centuries, the superstitious have attributed powers to them. The tiny reptiles would be quite flattered if they knew that humans estimate their abilities so highly.

My grandmother who lived in house which looked like a lizard sanctuary always went around armed with the panchangam (almanac) .The purpose of this was not to use it as a weapon against the reptiles.

She like many others of her generation, believed that everything the lizard did had a significance and could bode ill or well for humans. The almanac had pages and pages on how lizards decided the fate of Homo Sapiens.. Later I learnt that there was an entire treatise on the lizards' effect on human life known as Gowli Shastra.

Thus if the poor lizard made even the slightest noise the old lady would open the panchangam and try to gauge the reptile’s intentions.. If the lizard falls from the wall on you, your fate or that of your relatives could well be decided by which party of the body the creature comes into contact with, she believed...

Thus once a relative was bedridden and a lizard fell hitting his head. Grandma, after consulting the almanac was convinced that the guy was a goner. Surprise, surprise, the chap recovered within a week and lived for another 25 years.

Lizards, it seems, are as bad in their job as the weathermen who predict rains only to have a sunny day. Though quite disappointed by the relative’s failure to give up his ghost, grandma held on to her faith in lizards.


She passed on the panchangam carrying habit to her daughter, my mother. The almanac and my mom’s faith in lizards was a source of endless amusement to me and my rationalist father. Though hardly any of the attempts by lizards to manipulate our destiny succeeded., my mother blamed it on the laws of karma and gave lizards the benefit of doubt.

But neither my mom nor my grandma got hysteric when they saw lizards. Only my daughter who can’t even spell “panchangam” has the screaming fits.. And so Operation Lizard goes on, minimizing all chances of the reptiles deciding our ... . fate.

Dear Balajee
It was great reading operation lizard...........
Reading this post about your daughter, I remembered one of my cousin she too was same like your daughter, if she see's any lizard start screaming so many days her parents use to do the operation lizard and now her husband and kids do it. As soon as she sees a lizard will start screming and goes out of the house and stands until that lizard is thrown out.

Dear Balajee,

A good hilarious post.

Reading this, I was reminded of my uncle who is just similar to your daughter. By the by how old is she?

Originally Posted by Arunarc

Dear Balajee
It was great reading operation lizard...........
Reading this post about your daughter, I remembered one of my cousin she too was same like your daughter, if she see's any lizard start screaming so many days her parents use to do the operation lizard and now her husband and kids do it. As soon as she sees a lizard will start screming and goes out of the house and stands until that lizard is thrown out.

Lizards back in Bangalore used to be smaller and leaner, but in here at Chennai, they are huge...and come in all colours and spotted skins too...and they are in more numbers...they are audacious even in daytime and have made our wall clocks and tube-lights their default homes...


They say in Puranas, Tamil nadu region used to 'Naga loka' and lizards are reptiles like snakes and dragons...Our own Jurassic park? may be...

Palli patana phale in Ontikoppal kannada panchanga gives the details of results of lizard falling on different areas of body...


Nkumar

After our honeymoon in Kodai, hubby decided we had to visit his sis in Tuticorin. In that October heat, we boarded the rickety bus to Tuticorin.

We reached his sister's house in the afternoon. She took me around her house & in the pooja room there was this strange photo of a golden & silver lizard. I found it quite unusual. Turned out they were holy lizards from Kanchi. If a lizard fell on someone, the person had to touch that photo & there would be no probs.

Well each to their own. I politely refused a copy of that photo. Felt I was better suited to throwing them out of the house rather than keeping it in.

Regards,

Corallux

Hilarious post... Lots os women and girls behave this way.. really I think the lizard is a very innocent thing..In the first place it almost always resides on the wall, ceiling etc.. then it eats insects too.. Why make such a deal is beyond me!

Corallux Good comment.. Glad you didnt have to accept the photo!

Hilarious post Balajee.

Well, I could totally relate to your daughter. I become a complete coward when I see these creatures. Even as I type this FB thinking about "them" I am feeling uneasy in my chair!

It is not that I hate them but they just give me creeps. And it is not just me but even my Mom and both my siblings are the same in this matter! So you can imagine my Dad's plight.

At the expense of being the laughing stock here, let me narrate an incident. Dad was out of town on some official work. Mom and we kids were home. As we were getting ready to go to bed, I looked up at the ceiling and saw not one, but two lizards! I screamed my guts out and came running out of the room. My Mom who was in a similar state internally, feigned courage and got a broom to try and drive them out of the window. To which these two lizards completely disobeyed and came on the floor. Immediately all four of us (Mom and us kids) gave a loud and long shriek and jumped onto the dining table that was in the room. Our neighbors heard our loud scream and thought that thieves may have entered our house. So the neighbors broke the backdoor of the house and came in armed with hockey sticks and cricket bats and what do they see - Mom (with broom in her hands) and us kids standing on the dining table in fear of the lizards!!!!!

I know it does not sound real. But this is exactly what happened. I guess even today I would react the same way. Some things never change .....

SS

It is really nice to know I am not the only one who doesn't like lizards inside one's home. Balajee, as your daughter says, they really are creepy! I just can't stand them. My husband used to carry out "Operation Lizard" in our house......but nowadays, I too have become courageous enough to do the same. I can rest in peace only if it is out of the house. By the way, in one of the forums, somebody had suggested keeping peacock feathers in the house to ward off lizards. Maybe you could try that in your daughter's room and do away with all that hide and seek.

Regards,
Anitha

Aruna, a serious psychological study must be conducted on our affinity with lizards or the lack of it. Few creatures create such sense of revulsion and fear as these innocent decimators of insects do? But why?

Hi blalajee,
the scene u portrayed could just have been taken from our house.......we have once driven out a lizard at 2 am in the night.....hubby dears comment on the terrible sound that it makes. and which leaves me wide awake......what is your problem ....it is calling its mate why cant u sleep peacefully instead of denying it the pleasure...but i just cannot be in peace till i know it has been driven away...he says i have passed the fear to my dd too so u can imagine his plight...
Could relate to your post with great enjoyment.....
Mindi