Lying flat on my bed yesterday night, and staring at the ceiling, my
thoughts wandered madly. Suddenly it hooked up at something...
All children suffer from different types of fears. Most of them disappear
with time. As a child, I had two fears: Spiders & Teachers (The latter one,
unfortunately, still exist. Ref: An Idea Can Change
Your Life) Spiders are a species that most kids fear. They are omnipresent
too (i.e., present everywhere). If there were houses without spiders, I would
have done anything to escape into one. :D Sometimes, I've blamed God, for
producing such spooky creatures on earth, good for nothing but to scare the
hell out of us. (That was before our science teacher taught us the biological
impacts and the need of spiders in nature)
My house is an abode of spiders. Especially the bathrooms were their
breeding grounds. A variety of spiders, small, medium, big, male, female,
mutilated, mommies carrying eggs; all these are present here. Out of this vast
variety, the scary ones carrying big white egg sacs on their abdomen are the
most fearsome. I've also witnessed tiny baby spiders slowly getting out of
these sacs and gradually spreading on the wall! Even now, thinking of that
scene makes my hair stand attention and body go weak!
Every time I go to the bathroom, I used to check whether the spiders can be
seen in their usual places. If yes, I used to be relieved. Else, I go inside
expecting the worst to happen. Who can guarantee that they are not resting on
the soap dish or won’t pop out from the toilet seat? :P
But for the past few months, I haven't come across even a single
spider. It made me worry about spider communities. Being a nature lover, I was
worried whether they are in a threat to extinction. In fact, am I missing those
awful creatures??? Nee… no chance…
But something was wrong then. I rubbed my eyes and looked again at the spot
where I was staring before. Lo! This whole time I was staring at an 8-legged
freak! 7-legged freak, to be specific. This guy was handicapped. I thanked God
for saving a very important link in ecosystem, from the threat to extinction. I
also thanked Him for not giving wings for spiders. Else, they would have been
ten times more spooky and scary…
Wait!!! Did I hear my sister screaming from the bathroom “Amma, here there
are three spiders……!” ???
Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
