The Curious Incident of a Lizard in My Bathroom

I am an animal lover, and I am very sure about that fact. When I see an insect, or a reptile, on TV I marvel at, and appreciate, the beauty of mother nature. I love to see the animals going about doing their thing in their natural habitat. However, I am not so sure about my love for animals when they choose to abandon their natural habitat, and decide to enter my domain, my bathroom to be more precise. That, putting it in the most simplest terms, freaks me out.

But let me begin from the start. Yesterday, I came back to my room after a few games of Table Tennis (some might know the game as ping-pong). It is not a tiring game, but Delhi weather in May being what it is, I was sweating profusely. Uncomfortable as it was, it also made me look forward to a nice, cold shower.

I enter the bathroom, hang my towel and underwear on the rack, and then I let out, what I am pretty sure, was one of the loudest screams I have ever screamed. Of course there were some expletives thrown in, but those are best not repeated here. The reason for the scream was that just as I had hung up my towel, something had jumped out at me. For a moment I thought I was being attacked by an invisible force. I think watching too many episodes of LOST and HEROES can do that to a person.

However, I soon saw what had actually come out at me. It was the smallest lizard I had ever seen in my life; a baby lizard, I guess. Before I could think rationally, I had to ensure that the lizard was as far away from me as was possible within the confines of the small bathroom. That done, I had a good look at the lizard. Should I kill it? Should I throw it out? Should I let it be?

These were questions that sprung to my mind. Not surprisingly, I was reminded of the lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem Snake, "If you were not afraid, you would kill him!"

But unlike the hero in the poem, I am too kind, and I couldn't bear to kill the little thing. The fact that I was a bit scared of the lizard had nothing to do with my decision. If you think how anyone can be scared of a lizard, and that too a little one, I would only ask you to try and be with one in the confines of a bathroom, and that too a small one.

In the meanwhile, the lizard - as if reading my thoughts - started moving towards me. It was time for action.

I yelled, again.

It worked. The lizard quickly changed direction and tried to climb up one of the walls. I thought that it was good riddance as that wall had a window near the top. But, what is not meant to happen, does not happen. The baby lizard found it hard to cling on to the slippery wall.

I was praying for the lizard to get out, but it slipped and fell very close to my feet. I jumped, and I think some yelling was involved too. This time the lizard, instead of running in a different direction, came towards me. Maybe, it had decided to fight, rather than fly.

In some quick moves it came very close to me. I was standing there, waving my arms wildly, and making some sounds that can't be really described here for want of words. After a few seconds of arm waving, the lizard moved in the direction where lay my toothbrush, and paste, and soap, and shampoo, and conditioner and...well you get the picture.

I knew that if I saw a lizard walking over my stuff with my own eyes, I would have to throw all of that stuff out. That lizard was going to cost me quite a lot.

Now, money is a strange thing. It tends to strangle whatever slivers of kindness and ethics one has. It has the same effect on me. I decided that I had to kill that little devil.

But, when I looked around, I found that there was nothing around that I could use to kill the beast. Brave as I had suddenly become, I still could not imagine myself killing a lizard with my bare hands. Doesn't their tail fall off, or something. That thought by itself was enough to gross me out. Somehow I made my legs move in the direction of the lizard, and that had a magical effect.

The lizard scrambled away, faster than I had seen it move in all evening. It ran quickly, and fear , it seemed, helped it in climbing the wall this time. It climbed up to a safe distance. It did not go out, but it seemed to me that it had managed to reach a safe height - a height from where she could not hurt me. After observing it for some time, I decided that it had given up all intentions of attacking me. I decided to go ahead and take my shower.

All the while I was showering, my eyes were focused on the lizard. It was moving all the time, but thankfully it stayed at a safe distance. After I was done, I quietly stepped out and locked the door behind me. I had made sure that the thing did not come close to any of my stuff, before I stepped out.

I went out and had my dinner, but all the while I was thinking about the lizard in my bathroom. The food had lost its taste, and the after-dinner walk had to be cut short. I quickly came back to my room and carefully stepped into the bathroom. But the lizard was no where to be found. I checked everywhere, but the coast seemed to be clear. I was glad, but it also made me wonder where the thing had gone. Where would it turn up next?

I didn't have long to wonder for as I stepped on to the balcony, I saw it lazing on the outer wall. It made me smile as now I did not have to worry about a lizard showing up in my bed. The lizard seemed to be smiling too. I wondered if that was because it had seen me naked!

Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year to all readers of The Blue Panther Experience.

I am not sure if you would want to know where and how I spent My New Year's Eve, but I am going to tell you anyways.

I spent it in a bus. It was very cold and adding to my cup of woes was the fact that in my hurry to leave I had picked a sweater that was still wet from the washing. How was I feeling? I will let your imagination decide that, because words, at least decent ones, fail me when I start to think about how I felt.

But, I am glad it was the last day of 2008. I reached home at 4 AM in the morning, and went to bed. I woke up to 2009 in a warm and a comfortable bed, so I think 2009 is going to be a good year.

But then again, no year is good, or bad for that matter. It is what you do in the year that decides whether the year is going to be a good one or not. And one of the things I do every year is make a list of new year resolutions. How long I manage to keep them is another matter altogether, but I do make the list every year.

This year the list got pretty long. I guess it is because of some new things I learned this year, and some bad habits that I might have caught over the last few years. Whatever the reason might be, the fact is that the list got pretty long, and I am not going to burden you with it.

I am although going to talk about a couple of resolutions with respect to my blogging. I was looking up the number of posts I wrote in 2007 and 2008. The number in 2008 was almost half the number in 2007. Not only that, after a brief run through the posts, I felt that the quality of posts in 2008 had definitely gone down. Look from whatever perspective, a decline in both quality and quantity can not be a good thing. Some things need to be changed over here.

So, I decided one of my resolutions is going to be : Blog more, write better!

What are your blogging resolutions for 2009?

A Personal Post!

The last few days have been strange - a mix of good and bad. There have been highs, and, then, there have been the lows. One of the results of all that has been that I ended up neglecting this b. Initially, I felt bad about that, but soon I got over it. After all, the blog exists because I do, and not the other way around (though at times it does feel like one exists because the blog exists, no??)!

I did not even post a BYB Sunday post last week. The reason was that I was not having a particularly happy weekend, and it did feel kind of artificial to do a blessings post when I did not feel blessed at all ( It was a phase, and , of course, I am over it now. :) ). I am hoping I will be able to get back to regular blogging now. At the least, I will be trying to.

It has always been difficult for me to blog about personal issues, be they good ones or bad ones. That is especially surprising as I consider this to be a personal blog, though I do write about other things at times. I guess it is because of the feeling that anyone, in any mood, might be reading this, and he might not understand the sentiment in which the post has been written. One can't blame the reader, and one can't let one's feelings be taken lightly. So, the best thing to do is keep away from the personal posts. And, in line with that principle, I am going to cut his post short... and end it.

I would like to end it with a question though : Are you comfortable blogging about personal issues?