When I went to my sister's Jhargram ashram, I found lots of big lizards on their walls. At almost every gathering, they would add insightful 'tctch tctch' sounds of comments. I asked why they wouldn't do something to reduce their burgeoning lizard population. I was then told that to ward off 'tick tickie's as they are called by Bengalis, the best thing would be to put peacock feathers on the wall! Perhaps the lovely peacocks are fed a steady diet, by doting mother hens, of lizards to improve their voice culture!
I found some humongous lizards roaming freely on Sri Lanka's roads. They looked like dinosaurs broken free from a Spielberg set. I asked my local friends if they didn't harm people. They told me not normally, except on occasion they would go and eat up a baby in the cradle!
Lizards come where there's cockroaches and such. So they ought to be common in Indiranagar with its greenery, bad sewage, and farmland soil. But ever since we painted our house a couple of years ago, there is a big drop in cockroaches at home. Once we netted our windows, even mosquitoes are rare visitors. But my folks announced the other day that they had spotted a giant lizard at home. I did see him too, every morning basking in the early morning northeasterly light and breeze in the window. Perhaps he was missing the wide open spaces?
I decided to open the window and let him go. And when I did, I found that the doesn't want to go out! He loves our gated community - plenty of nibbles, IPL matches and Carnatic music.Apart from fascinating gossip on occasion. But unlike Bengali lizards, he doesn't join the adda conversations.
Well, no traffic hassles or carbon pollution for our gated lizard. So here I am, writing this from my couch and let me share his XpZ portrait too. Like any good couch potato or gated lizard, he poses well for photos.
