of mice and men
one lives with vermin. two-legged and four-legged.our ancient house in the ancient quarter of mumbai has been host to all creatures great and small.
many of these creatures i had only 'seen' in books or on tv. i had never seen a rat or a mouse up close till i turned 33 and got married and moved to the ancient house of the desais.
all are welcome here.rats, mice, roaches,flies.
even cats come here to deliver kittens.
we had a cat without a tail for many years.she adopted us.her name was BILOO.she had many litters and our children played with many kittens, which we would eventually put into a cloth bag , and get the cook to abandon on his way to the market.
biloo miscarried one day and we took her to hospital and had her have a a hysterectomy.after she got back home,she decided that i was her mother.
every rat she caught, she offered to me first. many a siesta was ended by biloo's insistent mee-owing outside my room,so that i could thank her for the bloodied rat she had brought me.
then dear biloo died. i miss her.
i miss her because after her ,no cats have come to the house.
we had one tom-cat who sat on the water tank and mewed.but he was a weirdo.he was vegetarian and he used to calmly watch huge rats walk past him.perhaps he was a vipassana meditator and observer.
then he too vanished one day.
so now the rats rule.we have families of them.there are some grand parents,solid specimens with long scaly tails,and many little ones.
the little rats are amazing acrobats.they can do flying leaps.they are no bigger than a large cockroach and have very bright, shiny eyes.
rats sing.oh ,yes they do.i have heard them sing away in the store-room.rats also LOVE to eat plastic bags.
rats are great thieves.they love to steal coins and spoons.one often comes upon a cache in some hidden corner.
thanks to rats, our resident kleptomaniac has a great time.she kleptos away and the poor rats take the blame.once the rats stole four muffin tins ! they opened the kitchen drawer and stole them.....sometimes, they even open the fridge and eat up all the nice things.
soon, i shall enter our household in the guiness book of records for having such clever rats.
many of these creatures i had only 'seen' in books or on tv. i had never seen a rat or a mouse up close till i turned 33 and got married and moved to the ancient house of the desais.
all are welcome here.rats, mice, roaches,flies.
even cats come here to deliver kittens.
we had a cat without a tail for many years.she adopted us.her name was BILOO.she had many litters and our children played with many kittens, which we would eventually put into a cloth bag , and get the cook to abandon on his way to the market.
biloo miscarried one day and we took her to hospital and had her have a a hysterectomy.after she got back home,she decided that i was her mother.
every rat she caught, she offered to me first. many a siesta was ended by biloo's insistent mee-owing outside my room,so that i could thank her for the bloodied rat she had brought me.
then dear biloo died. i miss her.
i miss her because after her ,no cats have come to the house.
we had one tom-cat who sat on the water tank and mewed.but he was a weirdo.he was vegetarian and he used to calmly watch huge rats walk past him.perhaps he was a vipassana meditator and observer.
then he too vanished one day.
so now the rats rule.we have families of them.there are some grand parents,solid specimens with long scaly tails,and many little ones.
the little rats are amazing acrobats.they can do flying leaps.they are no bigger than a large cockroach and have very bright, shiny eyes.
rats sing.oh ,yes they do.i have heard them sing away in the store-room.rats also LOVE to eat plastic bags.
rats are great thieves.they love to steal coins and spoons.one often comes upon a cache in some hidden corner.
thanks to rats, our resident kleptomaniac has a great time.she kleptos away and the poor rats take the blame.once the rats stole four muffin tins ! they opened the kitchen drawer and stole them.....sometimes, they even open the fridge and eat up all the nice things.
soon, i shall enter our household in the guiness book of records for having such clever rats.
posted by rashrocks at 6:27 AM
6 Comments:
that was a wonderful and incisive piece on the rat population at pydhonie ms desai- i look forward to many more of similar ilk.
fun
oops! that last 'said' was a test. great fun rash! i feel mean wishing you many more such encounters... you make them so entertaining! CHEERS!
R.I.P Biloo
but you go girl ,you write beautifully
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Nice. Hope you also start posting pictures -- that should be real fun.
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