RATS IN THE HOUSE

 

As days go by in a re-attired life, one sits down and recalls childhood days sometimes. What fun it used to be!

 

Those days, an air gun was the “boy-toy” in the house. The school campus where we used to stay was teeming with snakes, rats lizards, pigeons & partridges. Cobras would enter the “hen pen” and swallow their eggs and even strike a cock/hen. I am not using the word rooster, because we were taught it that way. The air gun used to come in handy.

 

The backyard being an open area had a lot of places for rats to hide. These rodents sometimes used to come indoors and frolic, toppling cups and saucers, eating food kept in the ‘Doli’, a wire mesh cupboard as good as a fridge of the good old days. They loved to feed on grains called “murgi-dana”, which used to be stored in drums for our poultry.

 

The cats were also the culprits to invite mice into the house. They would catch one and bring them to their kittens. Kittens loved to ‘toy’ with them. At an opportune moment, when neither the cat nor kittens were alert, mice which played dead would run away and hide in various nooks and crannies. Some hid in the kitchen too. They could only be detected when one found ‘gnawing marks’ on various food items or rattling sounds in the kitchen.

 

Sometimes the grain in the drums used to fall below the level from where they could fall in but not crawl out. We all used to get so excited when we found a rat holed up in the drum. Even the cat understood that she would get shikar. We would put the cat in. With one slap of her paw, she would affix it in her claws and jump out.

 

‘World War’ used to break out when a mouse was spotted in the kitchen. Mom would raise the alarm. Dad and I and sometimes my younger brother would scamper to fetch the deadliest weapon on that side of ‘Kanjli River’ to deal with the enemy.

 

We would corner it and then one of us would take a shot. The ‘last post’ was sounded with an imaginary bugle call by holding our fist to our mouths, ‘tootroon toooon”. Cats instinctively knew that their dinner had been served. Victory day was celebrated.

 

What happened if we missed the mouse and it escaped? The anger and frustration used to be visible on the whole family’s face. Mom used to taunt, “chalen hain tees mar khan ban ne, chooha to mara nahi jata”. That used to boil the manly instinct within the menfolk. Then an alternate target had to be found.

 

The easiest one was a lizard. Any lizard found on the window wire mesh used to become the target. One could not return home empty handed after all. Our wire mesh had so many holes that mosquitoes never had a problem coming in, courtesy the gaping holes made by the ‘do number ka charrra’ of the air gun.

 

60 years hence, times have changed. The grand old air gun must be rusting somewhere and has been replaced with a camera.

 

In the present-day scenario, rats are still a menace. We tried all kinds of rat traps, including the wooden ones with a flap where you affix some bait and rats get trapped inside. How and where to release this damn rat?

 

Then we brought a ‘karraki’ another rat-trap with a spring-loaded contraption which guillotined a rat before it could even blink. ‘Fateek’ it went and the mouse would be sent on its heavenly journey. During numerous postings we lost it.

 

There is now a biscuit called the ‘Rat Kill’ in the market. Rats eat it and go and die somewhere else. They could go into the neighbour’s house and die. Once they start smelling could they be detected. A ‘reeking’ kind of affair.

 

Now a days there is something called the “sticky pads”. No bait needed. If left on the path which rats generally follow, they walk over it. If one paw gets stuck to the glue, it is bound to react and get the second paw stuck too. Once stuck, it is ‘The End’.

 

If it has a partner in crime, it would surely come to check on it. That rat too gets stuck and more follow suit.

 

We were being troubled with this rat menace and we put a sticky pad for them. The first victim was a huge rat and today there were three more glued to that pad along with 4 cockroaches and a lizard. All of them would be given a befitting burial.

 

How do you guys manage rats in your house? I wonder!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS