I have a mortal fear of any kind of living thing that crawls or flies. It can be a lizard, a cockroach, ants or even just mosquitoes.
And all the above are present in abundance in Dhaka due to the tropical and humid climate. During my first couple of months in Dhaka, I had to battle each one of these. And my fear has only increased manifold.
My encounter with the lizard was a heroic one. I returned one afternoon from a session of bridge at the Bagha CLub to find one black, big and slimy lizard clinging to the wall above the dining table in my house. I had been going towards the guest room when the hair on the nape of my neck bristled and as I swiveled my head to find out what had given me the creepy feeling, I found myself staring at the lizard. A half scream died in my throat as I saw the lizard move its tail. It seemed to me as if the lizard was poised, waiting to see what my reaction would be.
I called out to my maid in a strangled voice, not moving my eyes from the lizard. I had vague notions that the maid would be able to dispatch the lizard outside the house.She looked at the lizard and announced "it is a tik-tiki!", (using the bengali word for lizard) in a matter-of-fact voice. As if I needed confirmation of that fact. What I needed was action! 'Go get a broom quickly", I directed her. My words spurred her to action but to my critical eyes and in my frenzied state, her movements did not seem urgent enough.
But I had to be really naive to think that I would be able to tackle the huge lizard with just a broom. The maid made a half hearted swipe at the lizard. And it reacted with disdain by just creeping a few inches away. I admonished the broom-wielding maid to be more alert and make sure that she hit the lizard this time. But the creepy crawly was just as ready! The momemt my maid raised the broom, it ran across the wall, then across another wall and before we could say "cheese", it had disappeared behind the air conditioner. It was uncanny how it seemed to know exactly where it wanted to go!
For a moment, there was silence-both the maid and me were too bemused to react. But my fear soon spurred me to action. I shrieked out "Go, get it! Hit with the broom on the A/C". Even while I said these words, I knew with a sinking heart that an opportunity had been lost. No amount of hitting the A/C with the broom; no amount of raising a din would bring the lizard out.
At this point, I placed a SOS call to my husband-that is all I could think to do! Though the logical part of me and the part that was not yet numbed with fear, knew that there was not much he could do. Hubby's office is in the other part of town from where we stay and at the best of times, it takes him half an hour to make the commute. When I told him about the unwanted guest at home, he instinctively offered me the usual platitudes about not worrying about it and that it will not harm me etc. Then hearing the quiver in my voice and knowing that I was probably at breaking point, he offered to send the maintenance guy from his office to open up the air conditioner and get the lizard out.
It was an agonizing wait for an hour, waiting for the maintenance guy to come. My maid and I took turns sitting at the dining table to ensure that if the lizard ever decided to come out of the air conditioner, we would know. Though how we would use this knowledge is a moot point. By now, my nerves were frayed and I was close to screaming point.
We had been waiting for almost an hour when the doorbell rang. It was Qadir, the maintenance guy. At last!
He came in looking very serious and made straight for the air conditioner. A ladder was fetched and he climbed onto it. With the help of a screwdriver, he prised open the air conditioner and after a heartstoppping 10 seconds of peering into the machine, he announced that there was no lizard. My heart sank lower-where had it gone? There was no way that it could have gone anywhere, considering that we had kept a constant vigil. "It has to be there," I murmured. And just then Qadir gave a yelp as the lizard ran out from the airconditioner. There was a mad scramble as the maid and Qadir tried to catch the lizard. For a few hearstopping seconds, it seemed as if the lizard would not be caught and would again run into the air conditioner-it was so fast! But a timely dive by the brrom-wielding Qadir finally brought the lizard down!
Why am I writing about this after so many months? Well, just yesterday, I saw another lizard, this time in my bedroom! Luckily, hubby was at home and managed to push it out!
But it reminded me of this earlier incident and also the fact that with the onset of summer the lizards are also out of whereever they have been burrowing in the winter months and are looking for cooler climes. The last few months had been lizard free, primarlily because the weather outside was cooler. The guard will have to go up again!
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