Photo by Amit Misra
I have four room-mates sharing my quarters. Lizards. They possess such high level of expertise in Tiger Leap that even Akshay Kumar has not been able to accomplish. That means, if some delicious looking insect comes within their field of view, they do not hesitate to take the jump in mid-air. Once in a while one of them would crawl on my laptop and peep from behind the screen as if trying to see what is going on there.
Sometimes I pick up my camera and click their photos in different poses. Initially it felt strange; however, when I took interest in them and looked closely and carefully, all fear and annoyance vanished. Now they are not afraid of me either, and can come very close to me, while I am holding the camera.
There is very dense vegetation — can be called a mini-forest — behind my quarters. Every evening plenty of insects and flies come inside, which serve the appetite of my room-mates. As a result, they have gained mass and achieved enormous proportions. I have been told that lizards cannot stand peacock feathers, so the latter are used to drive them away. But an equal number of people tell the contrary. I never tried it myself, so I cannot comment on the authenticity of this remedy.
I have a metal box in which very valuable books with ‘not to be moved’ tag are kept. The box is locked and has been lying in that location and position for years. Recently I opened the trunk and to a great surprise, found a big, fat lizard inside. Now, how did it get in? I have been scratching my head without getting any answer. It surely couldn’t have entered when I opened the box, because as soon as I lifted the lid, it had jumped off. Besides, there are no holes or gaps. On the other hand, had it entered at the time when I had closed the last time, it should have already died by now. Even if it had survived on the slight air that might have crept in from the edges, what did it eat? Surely there were no insects or flies inside. And what was it doing all this time? Indeed, a tougher austerity than even the most dedicated and devoted humans could endure. One thing is certain. Considering the books inside which gave it company, it must have gained profound knowledge of Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit, and Gujarati — the languages whose dictionaries and books are kept in the box. Only if I could understand a lizard’s voice…
Pradyot 
lizards are integral part of our life, every home they are present.Even there are various results are told in astrology ,if it fell on your body part. I get afraid when it is on the wall and I am boiling milk .
In that case, imagine that you are drinking milk in a big Punjabi lassi glass, and as you finish…you find a lizard sticking to the bottom…
same happened with me , but fortunately that was a small spider .I remember there was a movie “Sau din saas ke ” in that saas used this lizard to kill her daughter in law 🙂
I have also shared my room with lizards. They knew my room better than me. My lizards understood my difficult predicament but somehow they could not communicate. I stayed away from their shits colored in black & white by pulling my bed away from the corners and wall. I had reservation regarding spending time to read a holy book but the moment I lifted the book, the entire lizard family sounded “tik tik tik” in unison. I could not see the other two but there was one right over my head moving her unfashionable tail. I still wonder if anyone could help me with a mathematical equation to define the motion of its tail.
Everyone must have some story to tell about the lizards. Such a small, almost harmless, creature could be more dangerous than a carnivorous dinosaurs for few of us. If that could be found in the bathroom, where it generally trace-passes through the poor defence of louvered windows, many of us could decide not to use bathroom unless someone help him to remove such cross-border terrorist. If you are found guilty of giving shelter to such hazardous anti-social creature in your kitchen, where they generally entered through chimney duct, you will pronounced to be passive non-vegetarian by your in-laws. In many ways there presence in your home could be a statement of your personality.
This is called — enjoying the adventures of wild life from the comfort of your home!
Earlier it was said that a lizard falling on one's head was a premonition of death. With so many people dying every moment world over, I wonder how much of it could be attributed to improper balancing act of these poor creatures.