I had a lot to complain about being in the
middle of a sandwich aka being a middle sibling. My biggest gripe was that the
spotlight was rarely on me. So, I sought out all opportunities to stand out and
be counted. This also meant some opportunities that came knocking I’d rather
have passed me by.
You see, I super shine at being a
scaredy-cat! *grimace* No guts no glory for me. All of that went to Jaya and
Sappu, my older and younger siblings. For instance, on a family trip to
Thekkady, Kerala we happened to stay at an exotic hotel with rooms that looked
like thatched huts. They were basic enough that hot water had to be carried to
the room in the morning.
This hotel was quite close to the boundary
where the forest began. The owner was a documentary filmmaker and he told us
stories of tigers making kills right in the backyard, their growls echoing
through the night. Suitably impressed we would linger at the tables set up in
the courtyard overlooking the road that led up to the boundary, so we could
hear more stories.
One evening, he told us that if we were
willing to stay up late, we could spot a wild cat and her family that made its
home in the thatch over one of the rooms. His hazel eyes glinted in the evening
light and that was enough to have my imagination soar as I imagined him as a
shapeshifter in hiding, waiting for the moon to turn into the tiger or wild cat he spoke about. :P But my sisters were all gung-ho!
It was the first night of our stay and we
were to venture into the forest the next morning. So, the prospect of seeing a
wild creature was intensely appealing. I stayed back as the light faded and the few lights near the boundary were turned on. The owner continued to regale us with stories that amped
up my fear.
By nine, I abandoned all pretense at courage
and rushed back to my room. As I lay in bed looking at the flimsy door, I
wondered if it could withstand an onslaught from a wild cat. Then I wondered about the size of the wild cat? Bigger than a leopard? Smaller than a tiger? From there I started
worrying about my idiot sisters who were sitting ducks out there in the open. I only knew
peace when my sisters came back to the room saying the wild cat family didn’t
show up that night. Phew!
But I redeemed myself… once! The three of us
had gone on a trip to Palolem, Goa. It was a last minute thing so we had no
bookings. After a lot of hunting we finally found a place to stay in—a
one-storey house. We were on the upper storey in a room that faced an open
terrace.
The bed was situated right next to the window
and the window didn’t have any shutters. Just these wide bars. We were tired so
we decided to go to sleep. But my sisters just couldn’t sleep. They kept
imagining someone creeping up from the terrace and attacking them through the
open window. Now I’m usually the one who has the weirdest nightmares and dreams
up all kinds of terrors. But that night I had no fear. I actually offered to
sleep next to the window with barely a peek through half-open eyes to reassure
myself that there was no stranger lurking, grinning maniacally outside the
window. :D
Image Courtesy: Archibald Thorburn, Public
domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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