A dead Bat, a dead Rat and a dead pigeon

I have had my share of experience with animals, and more so, with dead animals. For a person who would shriek at the mere sight of a lizard, who would never enter the room again, that the dead rat was spotted in, and who would collapse at the sight of a dead dog on highway; the following experiences were a nightmare (and an endless laughing experience for my flat mate, Trishna)

Before I start narrating these real life events that traumatized me for life (I guess, that explains my bizarre behavior), here is a word of caution: All characters or names mentioned in here are not fictitious or imaginary, and any resemblance to any animal, living or dead is purely intentional and not at all regretted.

Dead Bat: After a detailed analysis on how to deal with summers, we came up with a solution that seemed most obvious. We got a second hand Air Conditioner for the house, which was installed in my room (not because I cried and created a ruckus, but because my room had ideal hygiene conditions for an air conditioner). We were a bunch of cheap kids and wanted to save every penny for other luxuries, so getting a second hand air conditioner seemed like a good investment until the AC caught fire next week of its purchase. But that is whole another story.

This is a story of that steaming night (steaming, not because it involves 3 hot girls, but because the temperature in Ahmadabad had risen to 45 degrees and we were roasted in our skin). We (Trishna, Purvi and I) were fast asleep in my room, when a bat flew in and made some noises to wake up Trishna from her sleep. The jealous Trishna couldn’t see the other 2 of us sleeping like babies, that she woke us all up. We then screeched, shrieked, screamed and chased the bat out (or at least, that’s what we thought). The next morning, while we all sat in my room and gossiped about latest bollywood link ups, I decided to pull out my craft bag and make another one of my quilling marvel. Going through my stuff, I found a black fur ball in my bag, it was soft and felt spongy against my cheek. In a quest to find out what it was, I looked at it carefully, when I saw its eyes. Eyes? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, immediately realizing what it was, I threw it at Purvi and stormed out of my room. Clueless Purvi and Trishna stared at the ball for a while and two second later, our house was a noisy mess. Trishna joined me outside while Purvi sat there with a dead bat lying on her chest. I should have mentioned this before that Purvi had broken her leg two days back and was bed ridden (completely immobile). While she yelled and cried for help; there we were pointing and laughing at her helplessness. We laughed till we couldn’t laugh anymore and then, somehow got the dead bat out of our house. We can still laugh over it for hours ☺

Dead Rat: All 3 of us took turns to clean the house and to cook for each other. I somehow escaped the cooking deal (I wonder if, burnt and tasteless food every third day, had something to do with it?)

That day, I got back home before others and started cleaning up the kitchen. Our kitchen smelled foul for some reason and I thought it was the sprouted seeds that Purvi was growing. So I threw it out and got back to cleaning the kitchen floor, shelves, slabs, fridge, and stove. If you have ever lived with me, you would know that I always work with LOUD music on. I formulate dance steps while cleaning, cooking, and bathing. ☺ No wonder I overlooked a huge piece of crap at the door, in front of my eyes.

Soon, Trishna came back home and started narrating her day to me while walking into the kitchen to get water. She barely made it to the kitchen and came out screaming. She looked pale, scared and shocked. She couldn’t catch her breath to tell me what she saw. She looked astonishingly at me and kept asking me, “You don’t see it?”
“See what?”, now I was sure she saw a ghost that chose to be seen only her, when she pointed out the dead rat to me. It was right at the entrance. “Oh My God”, it was a dead rat, that I probably touched/ stepped on/ and shared the space with for nearly 30 minutes. I lost my color. I felt sick and I was terrified. Of course screaming was inevitable.

Soon, our neighbors were banging on the door. They probably thought one of us was dying/ dead. Of course, the foul smell didn’t help. With the help of our neighbors, we got rid of the animal’s dead body, but the thought of it, haunted us for days. It took sanitization, washing every article with soap and a month of sleepless nights, for us to get back to cooking in that kitchen again.

Till date I suspect, it was the smell of those sprouts that killed the rat ;)

Dead Pigeon: Ahmadabad is a shit hole for pigeons. They seemed to have crapped in every nook and corner of the city. I remember, when I was house hunting and Trishna got me to show this wonderful airy house to me, that she loved. All I saw was, a house covered in thick layer of pigeon shit. The windows of the house must have been open for years, because I was certain I was walking on pile of pigeon shit rather than the concrete floor. But this is not what the post is about. This is just to give you an idea of how densely populated the city is with pigeons. I am sure if Franklin Schaffner would have visited Ahmadabad, he would have made “Planet of the Pigeons”.

That day (as usual) I got back from the gym. Even though this has nothing to do with the story, I find any excuse to tell people that I was regular with my working outs ;).
Got ready and was heading out for office, when I heard Trishna shout “Dee, Dee, Dee… Help, Help, Help”. I ran upstairs to her room only to find her all curled up in a corner and shivering with fright.

She had seen a pigeon fall flat and die in front of her eyes. It was indeed a scary sight. But what followed was scarier than ever. She expected me to get rid of the birds’ body for her. Me, the person who would collapse at the sight of brutality against animals in movies, was expected to touch a dead animal. But I couldn’t say no to this terrified and frightened kid. I took charge, got an empty shoe box and very bravely put the bird in the box with a broom. Just as I was getting the feel of “The man of the house”, the bird started quivering. Yup! That is when I threw the broom in one corner, the shoe box in another and ran in the third direction. Only after I could summon up enough courage, I went back to see that the bird had not moved and was dead. We, once again, got help to cremate the bird.

I guess, that’s enough dead animal stories for the day. I hope I sleep well tonight!

G’nite my lovely readers!