"Something's wrong with that lizard. It's not moved for a long time now. I went close to it and slapped my foot on the floor but it did not move. I think it's dead."
I looked at the immobile lizard for a few seconds. I went closer. Nothing! I wondered what my next move should be. The voice that had informed me about the lizard continued "I hope it does not turn out to be like that bird." The voice was referring to a pigeon. A few days back, we found a pigeon sitting at the edge of the balcony looking at the world. It looked weak. For a moment, I thought it was planning to kill itself by jumping off the balcony. Then I remembered that pigeons possess the ability to fly and so jumping off a tall building would not help the pigeon attain death. But the pigeon did not look well at all. I looked at it for some time before getting back to my life.
Next morning as I walked into the dining hall, I heard the words "The bird's dead". I looked through the small window that opened into the balcony from the dining hall. The pigeon was lying on its back with its legs pointing heavenwards. From where I stood, it seemed that the pigeon's head was crushed under a piece of wood. I opened the balcony door and walked out. I was relieved to see that the pigeon's head was intact. Apparently, it had died of a natural cause. My relief was short lived though. I started worrying about my course of action. I prefer to leave dead creatures alone. Unfortunately, they have this nasty habit of decomposing, which leads to foul odour spreading across great distances. So, I had no choice but to dispose the dead pigeon. I used a plastic cover to pick it up. I took it downstairs and requested the housekeeping staff to give it a decent burial.
The lizard continued to remain still. I took a step closer and slapped my right foot against the floor. The lizard did not react. I was worried now. I did not have the resolve to deal with another death. I rolled a newspaper and tried touching the lizard with it. The lizard moved away. Relief spread across me. The lizard was alive but something was wrong. The lizard should have run towards the ceiling as soon as it saw the roll of paper coming towards it. In this case, it moved away a little and continued to remain still. I observed the lizard for some more time. The tip of its tail had turned black. I wondered if that meant something but did not know much about lizards to know for sure.
My earliest memory of lizards is a lizard standing still close to the tube-light looking at I-have-no-idea-what. Actually, I am not sure if the lizard was standing still or sitting still. As I rummage through my memory, I realize that I have only seen lizards running or not running. I am not sure if in the "not running" state the lizard's standing, sitting or lying down. I have been fortunate enough to notice lizards flash out their pink tongue and arrest an unaware insect passing by. Though I am sure that the lizards do this regularly, I have only seen this happen after the rains. Usually, a day after the rains, the house gets flooded by those annoying insects, which look like ants with wings. The insects swarm around the tube-light like the Mughals attacking a Rajput fort. The smiling lizard stands at one of the tube-light looking at the insect with a glint in its eyes. After surveying the field for a few minutes, they start sprinting towards the other end of the tube-light. At some point during the run, the lizard captures an insect and stuffs the insect into its mouth. Apparently, lizard mothers are not disciplinarians like their human counterparts. They let their young ones stuff their small but wide mouth with large portions of food and don't mind if the young one does not chew the food. The lizards I observed did not chew their food at all; they move the food around their mouth for a bit and then gobble it. The food is not even dead when it starts it journey downwards. But the lizard can't afford to sympathize with its food and gives a contented smile as the screaming insect reaches its stomach.
For a long time, I did not like lizards. I found the colour of it's skin revolting. More than the colour, there is something disturbing about the texture of its skin. I have never touched a lizard but just thinking about it makes me shudder. To make matters worse I kept hearing news about children falling sick due to the presence of a lizard, obviously dead, in their food. For some reason, the lizard that died in the food got the blame for this calamity and not the people who let the lizard into the food. My impression of the lizards changed on the day I sat reading a book by P G Wodehouse in my house. Suddenly, I heard a lizard's say something from above my head. I turned around and looked up. A lizard sat on the wall. It was looking intently at my book with a big smile on its face. When I looked at it, its smile became longer and it gave me a nod. I nodded back and continued reading. The lizard kept pace with my reading and our laughs coincided with each other's. These days I look at lizards with affection and at times, have tried to offer them books to read. Sadly, I have never found another literate lizard.
An hour later, as I was sitting on the floor working on the laptop, I found the lizard besides me. It had moved half a metre in the past hour. It continued to stay absolutely still. I decided not to disturb it and let it ruminate about whatever it was ruminating. A few minutes later I looked at the lizard and thought it had moved its head a little to its right. It continued to stay besides me in that position for the next couple of hours. Two hours later I bid the lizard good night and went to sleep.
The next day, I did not remember about the the still lizard till someone mentioned "What's wrong with that lizard?" The lizard had moved five or six metres and had parked itself in the TV room. It continued to remain immobile. Something was definitely wrong with the lizard but we did not know what.
We have not seen that lizard since.
That was how this piece was supposed to end but I saw the lizard again last night. It is alive still. It has lost some of it stillness and is moving around but at a pace slower than the average lizard pace.
I wonder what is wrong with that lizard.
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