For the past two days I have been watching two cockroaches peeping
out from below the sink in my kitchen and beneath the washbasin in my bathroom.
But any move from my side and they vanish. I have never been using insect
repellents like Hit as I came to know that they not only harm cockroaches, but
also the ants that feed on them and it is also harmful to the environment.
Broomstick was my weapon.
Yesterday, my ten-year-old son came running from the
bathroom at the sight of a cockroach. Arming my weapon, I was on my quest for
the little trouble maker and finally spotting him, I targeted by weapon just on
time for the little creature to be left motionless. Feeling happy to have
finally waved goodbye to the cockroach I went on to prepare hot dosas for
dinner.
My son was sitting with the plate of hot dosa and sambar
with intense pain on his face. When I went near and patted him he just burst
out with incessant sobs. I was clueless, on what had gone wrong.
Then in between his
sobs he announced, “I don’t want dinner!”
I sat next to him,
held him close and ask him what happened. With even louder sobs, he said I can
feel the pain of that cockroach, Amma!”
It took a while for me to pacify him with reasons like the
diseases the cockroaches might spread and if I had not hit it on time the
number of coackroaches should have increased…. All the while I had started
feeling guilty.
I could then see my
little one offering prayers for the departed soul … I too sat down before the
altar asked forgiveness for my act and prayed for the soul of the cockroach!
I saw and felt
compassion in the tears of my little one.
When he snuggled
close to me at night and dozed off to sleep with an empty stomach I felt a lump
in my throat, drops of tears, trickled down my eyes, and I felt blessed…
