Today I dug two graves,
One for a Funambulus palmarum
Another for a Rattus ranjiniae;
In plainspeak
A Palm Squirrel and a Kerala Rat.
Retracing my thought-steps -
I was amused, still am,
To learn of a species, the Kerala Rat
and chuckled at the thought of the
teeming
millions of it subspecies, the Rattus
hominicus malayalensis,
In plainspeak, me and my fellow
malayalees!
Both were the victims, prey to the
great
Hunters at home, Sancho and Sally.
As Sancho proudly brought in the fat
rat
and dropped it at my feet, wagging his
tail
and panting and grinning and looking up
at me
for approval and that special pat on
his forehead
I learned that Sally had killed the
baby squirrel -
she had chewed it up proper
But she slunk away at my sight
Instinctively knowing that I
disapproved.
In the morning as I dug the graves
Sancho strolled over and supervised
Sally kept a respectful distance.
Throwing soil over the pits
I wonder why we love squirrels and hate
the rats
Both rodents, sharing a common lineage,
so to say.
I looked at the carcasses, not much
different they were
Except for the bushy tail and
three-striped coat that the squirrel had.
Looking at it, I remembered how badly I
wanted to keep a pet squirrel long ago
And fibbing about it, my fantasy
squirrel, the one I carried to school in my pocket
the one who ate and slept with me and
then for a tragic twist, how he got caught by a crow.
I remembered those whom I had saved and
then let go, I remembered the feel of the soft fur.
Turning aside, gazing at the pitiable
fat rat, now Late,
Looking at its bristling rough coat and
whiplike tail
Looking so loathsome, I took a moment
to think
of the dozens of its kin I have killed,
poisoned, smacked on the head.
I wonder why I love the squirrel and
Hate the rat.
Something more than the looks, the
bushy tail
Something more than the timidity, the
playfulness
that you see in the squirrel and not in
the rat.
Look at him/her, smart, bold,slinking
away in the darkness
Tipping pots and pans over, stealing,
biting the bananas
Ruining the stock of grains, the
leftover food
And the trail of feces contemptuously
left.
Looking at the squirrel and the rat,
both dead
I felt uncomfortable
Thinking how similar is the feeling
that I have
For the many Homo sapiens sapiens I
know.
*********** Balachandran V, Trivandrum,
24.02.2013
