Pet Peeves

Now that the rains have receded, we are done with the swarms of earthworms, leeches, caterpillars, millipedes and such assorted creepies and crawlies that used to invade the China Hut every

Silent admirer

morning as we exercised.
However, there remains one friendly centipede that continues to visit us at 7:00 a.m. sharp – particularly when Razia Khan is around. She cannot stand the sight of him, but he, in all simplicity, appears to be infatuated by her. Quietly and with utmost devotion, he follows her around the floor of the China Hut regardless of all her efforts at shooing him away.
We have been watching their love-hate relationship closely and oddly enough, have developed a liking for the poor fellow. His tenacity is admirable. Even Shekhawat makes sure nobody stamps upon him by mistake. Nahid Khan points out that he is special. Unlike many other worms, this one is unidirectional in its movement and does not buck up and down or move back and forth like some two-headed freak.

Razia Khan pulls Shekhawat's ears

The little chap has learnt to enjoy absolute freedom of movement in our midst, even as Razia could be hopping about changing her position constantly.
But then, to be fair, Razia is not the only one to suffer from a mortal fear of such admirers. Bhaswati Bose and Laxmi Hadimani (as she was to demonstrate today) are equally petrified at the very mention of a keeda. Their expression of horror is pure entertainment to us.
As peeves go, Shekhawat too has acquired a new one of late. He refuses to pull his ears during the tai-chi round. (Earlier it was about beating his chest, and then, of hitting the head.) Today, when he complained vehemently about being forced to pull his ears every morning, Razia Khan put an end to his misery in a beautiful way. She went to him and began tugging at both his ears forcefully to the count of 36.
We expected him to jump in pain, but surprisingly, Shekhawat enjoyed every moment of the ordeal.