Rat Race
That was the best section of our house, no maintenance or fuss about arranging things. Just dump things and forget about them. Newspapers, old books, cartons, anything. Bachelors might as well agree of this description for their entire house though. No offence intended.
Might it sound cliché, “It all began” when the carrier of our own Lord Ganesha found solace in this corner of our house, putting it simply, a rat found its new home amidst our newspapers and books. Not that we keep our house in such a bad condition so as to be infested with pests, just that large window just behind this junk and easy access to the kitchen would have interested our guest who was definitely not welcomed. Probably in some other house this would have gone unnoticed for some time, but here? Naah. With spinsters in charge, of a house, everything from a spider to a lizard is a trouble, unlike few who live in harmony with them! So, IT was discovered one fine day when contents of the dustbin were found on the floor, much to the unease of the girls who more than anything don’t like their house dirty. I know I am being contradictory, but Hey!! THAT corner of the flat wasn’t dirty, just piling of neglected things.
Anyways, coming back to my narration, as soon as IT was discovered, we took a non-violent route and decided to make IT leave the house with our protest and a hunger strike for the rat. Hence, care was taken to lock all the doors before leaving the house and clear the floor of anything that can come in category of eatables. This continued for a week but alas! Guess things had to take a violent turn.
Tired of this hide and seek, we declared war. OK FINE!! We decided to clean up the mess and force IT to leave. Weekends are reserved for relaxing and cooking lots of varieties at home. But as this nuisance added to our erstwhile usual weekend, had to still manage all of it. So, as my roommates geared up to fight IT, I was pushed into the kitchen (with door securely locked, of course by me) to grind coconut which was preserved in oil. Half wondering about IT and the oil content of my lunch, I placed the jar on the grinder holding the handle firm (not taking any chances) and switched it on without holding the lid in place. What happened in the next two seconds is still a mystery; I only remember content of the jar (with its oil) splattered over my dress and half of the kitchen, that as luck would have it, had all our ‘cleaned’ utensils. Hmm! As I wondered, what to do next, covered in oil, heard my roommates scream and turned to find the rat finding its way through a small hole into the kitchen that in an instant found me sitting on the kitchen slab. To add to the drama, I found myself unable to open the kitchen door (that didn’t have a handle) with my ‘Oily’ hands and was left to explain the situation from inside the kitchen to my roommates who couldn’t hear anything, thanks to their constant cries to tell me that IT had entered kitchen. Deep Breath! Always works! Calm Down! Just a Rat! So I finally opened the door and faced the smiling and confused (at the same time) faces of my roommates (oil & grinder! Ah! Now u got it). With such an exciting start, it was decided to put an end to it without any more adventures and I ran all the way down from our fourth floor apartment to call the watchman and thanks to my stars I just had to say “Koncham help”…”Eli” (rat), and he understood. Cutting the story short, he put IT in a box and put an end to this episode. As for us, we spent rest of the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and I washing the dishes. Well that’s how I spent one of my Sundays and as my roommate put it, “No worries! Just another experience”!
Might it sound cliché, “It all began” when the carrier of our own Lord Ganesha found solace in this corner of our house, putting it simply, a rat found its new home amidst our newspapers and books. Not that we keep our house in such a bad condition so as to be infested with pests, just that large window just behind this junk and easy access to the kitchen would have interested our guest who was definitely not welcomed. Probably in some other house this would have gone unnoticed for some time, but here? Naah. With spinsters in charge, of a house, everything from a spider to a lizard is a trouble, unlike few who live in harmony with them! So, IT was discovered one fine day when contents of the dustbin were found on the floor, much to the unease of the girls who more than anything don’t like their house dirty. I know I am being contradictory, but Hey!! THAT corner of the flat wasn’t dirty, just piling of neglected things.
Anyways, coming back to my narration, as soon as IT was discovered, we took a non-violent route and decided to make IT leave the house with our protest and a hunger strike for the rat. Hence, care was taken to lock all the doors before leaving the house and clear the floor of anything that can come in category of eatables. This continued for a week but alas! Guess things had to take a violent turn.
Tired of this hide and seek, we declared war. OK FINE!! We decided to clean up the mess and force IT to leave. Weekends are reserved for relaxing and cooking lots of varieties at home. But as this nuisance added to our erstwhile usual weekend, had to still manage all of it. So, as my roommates geared up to fight IT, I was pushed into the kitchen (with door securely locked, of course by me) to grind coconut which was preserved in oil. Half wondering about IT and the oil content of my lunch, I placed the jar on the grinder holding the handle firm (not taking any chances) and switched it on without holding the lid in place. What happened in the next two seconds is still a mystery; I only remember content of the jar (with its oil) splattered over my dress and half of the kitchen, that as luck would have it, had all our ‘cleaned’ utensils. Hmm! As I wondered, what to do next, covered in oil, heard my roommates scream and turned to find the rat finding its way through a small hole into the kitchen that in an instant found me sitting on the kitchen slab. To add to the drama, I found myself unable to open the kitchen door (that didn’t have a handle) with my ‘Oily’ hands and was left to explain the situation from inside the kitchen to my roommates who couldn’t hear anything, thanks to their constant cries to tell me that IT had entered kitchen. Deep Breath! Always works! Calm Down! Just a Rat! So I finally opened the door and faced the smiling and confused (at the same time) faces of my roommates (oil & grinder! Ah! Now u got it). With such an exciting start, it was decided to put an end to it without any more adventures and I ran all the way down from our fourth floor apartment to call the watchman and thanks to my stars I just had to say “Koncham help”…”Eli” (rat), and he understood. Cutting the story short, he put IT in a box and put an end to this episode. As for us, we spent rest of the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and I washing the dishes. Well that’s how I spent one of my Sundays and as my roommate put it, “No worries! Just another experience”!
Comments
u could have eaten it ..right away..