Actually this happened on the night I made the post abt Chikmagalur n I dinno how to weave it into that post...n I wasnt particularly keen on starting another thread. Thing is, I've promised myself that there'll be no more than one post per day...writing (read rambling) is pretty addictive, so I wanna do it in moderation ;-)
Anyhow, the night I'm referring to was pretty dark, stark, chilly n quiet as hell. U see I live alone in this nice quiet penthouse n most of the neighbourhood hits the sack around 10ish. Once the neighbourhood has curled up, it becomes really really quiet...n dark as well...which BTW, I'm not complaining abt in the least bit. I actually love silence n darkness...no, not in any morbid kinda fascination way, but coz u can see n hear things which r drowned out by the usual flood of lights n sounds. U can see for instance, the stars a lot more clearly...hear the night sounds...of insects engaged in their incessant conversations...n if u strain really hard, u can almost see wisps of Zzzzs floating out of all those dark windows!
N u can hear urself breathe! We breathe every moment of our lives, totally oblivious of this life-sustaining activity. N once in a while, when we do become aware of it, it feels so strange n alien...as if that regular rhythm of breath going in n out belongs not to u, but smone else! But it's strangely beautiful...n what's even more beautiful is if that sound actually belongs to smone else...n it's accompanied by the sound a heart beating wildly :)
Ah! 'Tis the most beautiful sound in the world!
But let's not go down that street today...
So till now we've established that the night in question was especially dark, quiet n chilly...n also stark.
I was suddenly awoken by a scraping sound near my pillow. My first thought was that it was sm insect, who'd lost his way. Usually after the rains, all sorts of insects creep into houses...n I'm quite used to them...even large ones! Our campus was nestled practically in the lap of a jungle (n between two lovely lakes), so there wld be all sorts of nocturnal visitors. They're pretty harmless...even the creepy looking ones...if u leave them alone, they're usually gone before dawn.
But the fellow near my bed seemed unusually large...n fiesty too! This large fellow was making rather large sounds. I was feeling too lazy, but at the same time, I was afraid I'd roll over in my sleep n find him all squashed up in the morning. So I dragged myself out of bed n straightaway switched on the light. N there, tucked away behind my pillow was this dark, brown bat! So what I did was I gave my mattress a bit of a tug, thinking that he'd take that as a hint to buzz off my bed! But no...he stayed put...sprawled nicely on my mattress! I thought maybe he'd like sm privacy to make good his escape...I went to the other room n plonked myself near the window. I waited for abt 15 minutes...actually, it was just 5 mins, but they seemed like 15! Anyway, after the above-mentioned interval of time, I open the bedroom door...n what do I see? Mr Batman is nicely curled up on my bed...faaast asleep! A moment ago, he was flying all over the place, but now he was deep in slumber! I was actually kinda feeling bad to wake him up frm his reverie...but then this is not how a young bat, in the prime of his life, is supposed to spend the most productive part of his day...err, night...he's supposed to be out foraging for food! Endeavor to put food on the table!
I then realized that maybe the reason he fell asleep suddenly was because of the light. So I opened my bedroom windows, gave him a bit of a prod, switched off the light, closed the door n went back to my window in the other room. After a few mins when I peeped in, he was, mercifully, gone!
So if u ever have bats gatecrashing ur slumber, the proper procedure to evict him is to open the windows, NOT to switch on the light, close the door n wait at a nice li'l window in the other room.
Needless to say, after this adventure at such an unearthly hour, I was finding it pretty hard to keep my eyes open...even to go for a leak! But I smhow did that n crashed...not in the loo, but on my head!
Slept peacefully...I was afraid I'd dream of bats, but thankfully, there were none of those! :)
Anyhow, the night I'm referring to was pretty dark, stark, chilly n quiet as hell. U see I live alone in this nice quiet penthouse n most of the neighbourhood hits the sack around 10ish. Once the neighbourhood has curled up, it becomes really really quiet...n dark as well...which BTW, I'm not complaining abt in the least bit. I actually love silence n darkness...no, not in any morbid kinda fascination way, but coz u can see n hear things which r drowned out by the usual flood of lights n sounds. U can see for instance, the stars a lot more clearly...hear the night sounds...of insects engaged in their incessant conversations...n if u strain really hard, u can almost see wisps of Zzzzs floating out of all those dark windows!
N u can hear urself breathe! We breathe every moment of our lives, totally oblivious of this life-sustaining activity. N once in a while, when we do become aware of it, it feels so strange n alien...as if that regular rhythm of breath going in n out belongs not to u, but smone else! But it's strangely beautiful...n what's even more beautiful is if that sound actually belongs to smone else...n it's accompanied by the sound a heart beating wildly :)
Ah! 'Tis the most beautiful sound in the world!
But let's not go down that street today...
So till now we've established that the night in question was especially dark, quiet n chilly...n also stark.
I was suddenly awoken by a scraping sound near my pillow. My first thought was that it was sm insect, who'd lost his way. Usually after the rains, all sorts of insects creep into houses...n I'm quite used to them...even large ones! Our campus was nestled practically in the lap of a jungle (n between two lovely lakes), so there wld be all sorts of nocturnal visitors. They're pretty harmless...even the creepy looking ones...if u leave them alone, they're usually gone before dawn.
But the fellow near my bed seemed unusually large...n fiesty too! This large fellow was making rather large sounds. I was feeling too lazy, but at the same time, I was afraid I'd roll over in my sleep n find him all squashed up in the morning. So I dragged myself out of bed n straightaway switched on the light. N there, tucked away behind my pillow was this dark, brown bat! So what I did was I gave my mattress a bit of a tug, thinking that he'd take that as a hint to buzz off my bed! But no...he stayed put...sprawled nicely on my mattress! I thought maybe he'd like sm privacy to make good his escape...I went to the other room n plonked myself near the window. I waited for abt 15 minutes...actually, it was just 5 mins, but they seemed like 15! Anyway, after the above-mentioned interval of time, I open the bedroom door...n what do I see? Mr Batman is nicely curled up on my bed...faaast asleep! A moment ago, he was flying all over the place, but now he was deep in slumber! I was actually kinda feeling bad to wake him up frm his reverie...but then this is not how a young bat, in the prime of his life, is supposed to spend the most productive part of his day...err, night...he's supposed to be out foraging for food! Endeavor to put food on the table!
I then realized that maybe the reason he fell asleep suddenly was because of the light. So I opened my bedroom windows, gave him a bit of a prod, switched off the light, closed the door n went back to my window in the other room. After a few mins when I peeped in, he was, mercifully, gone!
So if u ever have bats gatecrashing ur slumber, the proper procedure to evict him is to open the windows, NOT to switch on the light, close the door n wait at a nice li'l window in the other room.
Needless to say, after this adventure at such an unearthly hour, I was finding it pretty hard to keep my eyes open...even to go for a leak! But I smhow did that n crashed...not in the loo, but on my head!
Slept peacefully...I was afraid I'd dream of bats, but thankfully, there were none of those! :)
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