TIK TOK RETURNS

 TIK TOK RETURNS

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

21/V/2022

 

Tik-Tok has been IN our garden for a while. One is not sure that he travelled here camouflaged in between pots with our luggage truck or he was already the resident of this place. Nevertheless, he has taken over the pots as his own.

 

This guy has an attitude. He can give you that wry smile too. Though he isn’t scared of us but when we cross his safety limits, he scoots. He can cling all day to the trunk of the Champa and leisurely turn around as the sun changes direction. Tik-Tok is the boss of the garden.

 

Boss doesn’t like to be disturbed. If he selects a pot, he likes to spend time in that. There is prey in the form of insects, ants & shade to his liking. After we have watered the pots, mud cools for him to spend his day in this hot summer. Birds don’t bother him and he doesn’t bother them either.

 

Sometimes ants become a menace for him. The other day, when we were fixing ‘shades’ for pots. Tik Tok’s favourite pot had to be moved. Underneath the pots was an army of ants with their nest full of eggs. On being displaced, ants ran for life carrying their eggs and covered this guy all over.

 

They must have bitten him too. Poor guy had to abandon his perch and run for life. Ants can be dangerous. If they latch on to a wounded reptile, they can consume it in a very short time. Tik-Tok just vanished.

 

My feet were tickling too. As I did a ‘Dekho’ to my legs, ants were moving up. A quick wash with the hose pipe washed away most of them. Luckily none of them bit me. That feeling is eerie.

 

For two days Tik-Tok did not return to his favourite pot. It was then one realised that the sequence in which the pots were re-laid on the pot stand had got altered. A new pot didn’t have that much space for it to stretch his legs. Attitude!

 

Once the pots were arranged in the old sequence he was back. In the evening, he was sitting and staring at me with piercing eyes. With his stomach flat on the cool mud, he got alerted. Just in case I cause trouble. Then he twisted his head and rotated his eyes. Mind you, each eye can move in different directions, even in opposite directions. One looking at you and the other somewhere else.

 

As they say that a chameleon’s changes its colours, it is true for the politicians though. He changes from brick red with pots, to green or yellow with leaves, brown & grey when he sticks to the trunk of the tree. Sometimes half his body is one colour and the rest is  different.

 

As I stood still, he kept one eye looking at me and the other eye went into a search mode. Maybe for prey or for danger. How could it focus on two objects at one time?

 

Once it is dusk, this guy climbs up the tree & hides in the cluster of leaves for a good night’s rest. Insects come to the sweet smelling flowers which he targets with his long tongue.

 

This morning, boss enjoyed the sprinkle I gave to the tree. Droplets which stuck to leaves and his body were lapped up by his long sticky tongue. A forced shower is all one requires to beat the heat.

 

As the day passed, temperatures soared. He came down from his throne high above to one of the pepper pots in a corner. From there he jumped over to the windowsill trying to get in. Glass being too slippery, didn’t allow him to hold on, so he jumped back to the ‘muddha’ and then to the floor.

 

Floor being hot as hot could be, he ran back to the Champa and climbed up. The mystery of my falling ‘morning glory creeper’ got solved. Initially, I thought it was the wind which blew it off. Every day we train it in such a way that the creeper sticks to the trunk to climb. Everyday our friend pulls it down.

 

Thank God, we didn’t tie it up with a rope or else it would have snapped in the middle. Then this guy found his way back to his favourite pot to chill.

 

There is a baby chameleon which I saw a couple of days back but is no more to be seen. Hope it has not become prey to the predators.

 

Tik-Tok you are a welcome guest. One request yaar, don’t break my morning glory vine. We are trying to generate natural shade for you. Will he understand? I wonder!!!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS