A CHANGE OF MIND

 "Look, Dad! A teeny-tiny baby lizard," my 10-year-old son, Suresh, shouted in excitement, pointing at a small lizard perched on the wiper of our car. I was just then easing the car out of our garage. Suresh was sitting in the front seat beside me.

The creature was so small that I hadn’t noticed it in the semi-darkness of the garage, but Suresh, who has a keen eye for such things, hadn’t missed it.

I stopped the car and tapped on the windshield. The lizard moved its head slightly but didn’t budge from its perch, pinning me with a reproachful stare. I switched on the wipers. I thought that the movement would throw it off the car.

“Dad, be careful. You are going to hurt the poor thing.”

But just as the wiper blade started moving, the creature scampered nimbly towards a safer place at the base of the wiper.

I now switched on the water jets that are used to clean the dust on the windshield. A shower of water would definitely make the damn thing get off the car, I thought crossly. But alas, my hope was in vain. The creature kept scurrying hither and thither on the bonnet of the car, avoiding the water jets. But it didn’t get off. Suresh, watching the entire episode, was clapping his hands and laughing delightedly. He was taking the lizard’s side in this battle, I thought morosely, in unfair irritation.

My actions to get rid of the lizard might seem like much ado about nothing, but I am averse to creepy crawlies in general and lizards in particular. I felt great disgust on seeing this particular one on my windshield and was ready to do anything to get rid of it.

So, I took the rag that I use to wipe the car and got out. I threw the cloth over the bonnet, certain that the lizard would be trapped underneath. Then, with a satisfied smirk, I clutched the cloth, rolled it into a bundle, and threw it into the garbage bin beside the garage. I now noticed that the lizard was no longer on the car bonnet. I must have captured it with the cloth neatly, I thought to myself triumphantly.

“Good riddance,” I said aloud to Suresh as I got into the car. Suresh just kept mum. Maybe he was upset with me for getting rid of the creature. I didn’t care. I started the car and drove towards Darjeeling, which is about a three-hour drive from our residence in Siliguri.

Suresh continued to look glum for some time, but when we reached the foothills, the sight of the tea estates, with their bright green bushes on the side of the road, seemed to lift up his spirits. He started his usual chatter, pointing out to me the various trivial things that caught his attention.

After about a 90-minute drive, we reached Kurseong, a scenic town just halfway between Darjeeling and Siliguri. Feeling a bit hungry, I stopped by a roadside tea stall, and we got out for some hot tea and snacks.

After a thoroughly satisfying session with some delicious tea and samosas, we came out of the eatery to stretch our legs.

As we neared the car, Suresh shouted, “Look, Dad! He’s back!”

Daintily perched on the wiper of the car, staring insolently—almost with a scornful challenge in its beady little eyes (or so I thought in my irritation)—was the little lizard which I thought I had already got rid of earlier. But it must have remained hidden in some nook between the windshield and the bonnet cover all this while during the drive. Then, once the car stopped moving, it must have come out of its hiding place.

I was now furious. Enough is enough, I muttered to myself, and grabbed hold of a broom that was lying outside the shop and swiped the creature off the

car. It fell on the ground and scurried away into the bushes, none the worse for the fall.

I gave a satisfactory grin of achievement and got inside the car, all the while feeling slightly ashamed of my keen pleasure in having gotten rid of the annoying creature but also feeling very smug about it. When I looked at Suresh, I was dismayed to see that tears were streaming down his cheeks.

“Hey, what happened?” I said with concern.

 “I am feeling sorry for the poor baby lizard, Dad. It must have been living with its parents and friends in our house. Now we have left it alone in this place, far away from its home. It cannot return home either. It is so tiny, Dad. It must feel very scared and lost, all alone in a strange new place without family and friends. Who will feed it when it is hungry and take care of it when it is sick? Who will protect it from predators? We have done a bad thing, Dad. God is going to punish us,” Suresh started sobbing uncontrollably.

“Hey, don’t worry! Lizards are very smart. They can take care of themselves. It will be a great adventure for him. He will make new friends here and live happily. Don’t worry,” I tried to console him. He stopped crying after a while and seemed calmer, but I could see that he was still thinking of the lizard. I sighed and sat back in my seat, thinking about the dratted lizard and alternately glancing at my son’s tear-streaked face. We sat there, the both of us, thinking different thoughts, and the minutes ticked by. I suddenly sat up, as though waking from a reverie, and started the car—but homeward.

I dropped my plans to go to Darjeeling and returned home from Kurseong itself. Suresh did not question me as to why I was going back. He was still preoccupied with the lizard, I thought.

 “You have returned so early. How was the interview at the boarding school? I hope you got the admission for Suresh confirmed for this session itself,” my wife asked eagerly.

 “No, I didn’t go to the boarding school. In fact, I have dropped the idea of sending him to any boarding school for now, as he is only a small kid and should not live away from us. He will miss his friends too if we shift him to some other place. So, I do not want him to be away from us, at least until the time he is eighteen. Yes, the boarding school would have given him a great education, far better than the local schools. But we will make up for that by tutoring him ourselves at home,” I said to her with conviction, and then proceeded to narrate the incidents of the day that led to the change of my mind.

My wife agreed to my decision quite happily.

------------------------------------------THE END------------------------------------------------