The Cockroach and Me

My early morning routine is to open the main door of the flat,
sweep the tiny space which has an embedded black granite stone in front of our door,
sprinkle some water,
mop the black granite stone and draw a kolam (more on kolam in my next blog).
A kolam is called rangoli in the north. A kolam is a symmetric pattern drawn on the floor in chalk or with a paste of rice flour.
This is an early morning ritual in most of the south Indian homes.

As I opened the door, armed with a broom to sweep, a cockroach which was hiding near the threshold ran helter skelter to save itself from an imminent attack. When it tried to come inside the house, I tried to broom it away outside. The roach and me were trying to outdo each other with a lot of song and dance about it. I succeeded in sweeping it as far away from our door as possible without killing it. In the mileu, I fell on both knees :D
I was thankful I din't break a bone in this early morning amateur dance recital.

Despite our sealing all the entry points and fixing fine nets on all windows, some do find their way in, as we live on a ground floor apartment. I tolerate them as creatures who have equal right to live and share space on earth yet I wish they chose some other place and not my house! They are unwelcome guests.

They keep coming back even as we keep taking some pest control measures from time to time. Perhaps that is why they are called 'pests'.

Mahalakshmi.