How to catch a rat?
On Christmas day, Here is one fun short story. I'm working on it for days...
Back home in India, we always had rat issue when i was kid. We used to have lengthy discussions, brainstorm and strategy session to go through how to catch rats. The issue was, the rats came only at night to spoil our food and other eatables. It was suggested that, to have cat at home to scare rats and have a dog also to scare cat, so cat would eat more rats. But one brilliant mind suggested that what if after all the rats gone, what to do with the cat and dog. Everybody agreed that point and scraped the whole cat/dog idea, we all went back to whiteboard.
I suggested one idea that i would wake up daily night for a week to analyze all rats and its behavior and then make an appropriate plan to catch all rats. Nobody seems to agree, because i was too young to wake up all night and my plan was a bit vague to them . First i was angry with all of them, but then realized that it was my bad to blame others because i didn't explain it properly, so i decided to cajole again this time with proper explanations.
I started my arguments, as per scientific researches that rats are like human, they use rat for any scientific test before use it on human. Like human each rat was different, we can't use one trick to catch all rats hence we need to profile our invaders first and then come up with different approach. I started looking everybody face, they were not quite convinced. I thought my scientific approach failed, what else i have, my heart bumped and mind started spinning to win the hearts and minds.
I didn't have any more cards, i got an idea on the spot, i started again my argument, this time i used a practical jargon, see, Mama(uncle) used to be scared of elephant but not his wife. Chittapa(uncle) used to be scared of his wife but not of bulls. That's the difference, we have to had a solid plan to catch the rat because like human they also have their own preference. Now everybody agreed and they said that they need some more time to discuss about this plan.
I pleaded with them , time was running out, already we lost enough food because of rats now monsoon season also started. They said don't worry, everything should be analyzed carefully before come to conclusion. By the time, harvest started sooner than usual because of early start of monsoon. All raw rice were stored in front of our house, rat issue became Brobdingnagian.
I was waiting for a decision from all of them. They came back after 1 week, with the decision i most disliked. They apparently went to temple priest to find out any remedy for rat issue religiously. The priest misguided them by offering a ritual which was not in entire Hinduism practice. One said that before applying my unproven scientific approach lets try this cheap one and see the results, he even added that it was proven and priest used this ritual to stop rats at sannathi(a street usually named which starts from in front of temple) street.
I was in dilemma, do i need to stop this nonsense? or let them try this, at end of it, i can use it as my card to persuade them further. I said okay lets try this ritual and made a stress on my point that if this fails, i would use my approach. The priest was very busy with harvest ritual at fields, he gave an appointment ,a week after today, by the time, i sneaked at night and started my surveillance. The main issue with my home was, there are so many holes that rats used to enter, i can't close all of them because some of them are used to drainage rain water but can be closed if it not raining.
The priest came and did his rituals, the smoke was inside home and i loved the smell which is not ordinary fire, the fire was started by ghee and main fuel was sandalwood. I loved the smell but i couldn't see anything for sometime, my eye started burning. I wondered how come the priest sitting in front of fire, he was very close to the fire and he always burn the fire the height above his head, the smoke really start from where the fire ends.
After rituals, 2-3 days there was no rats, all clear, everybody happy. There are some rats but those are manageable by "Tiger" the cat we used to raise to control rats but no dog yet. I was surprised that how come no rats, so the ritual helped?. I was too scare to go in front of all, they might start laughing at me. I was right, one by one came into my room and laughed and started mocking me, see we had controlled everything by a simple ritual, what happened to your science and theory?
I was ashamed and started thinking what went wrong with my thought process? I still smell the ghee mixed sandalwood fire burns. I slept with too many wounds in my heart and felt hurt. In my dreams, i started chasing rat with fire on my hands, some stupid dreams, hell no, wait!! i woke up and i realized that the smell made rats away from my home, once the smell go away the rats would come back. Am i right? I asked myself 1000 times yes, i'm right, before i announce this theory to others, i want to make sure everything was right. I took my bicycle went to library, search for book at chemistry side, fire chemistry, i checked it, fire releases light and energy, ghee and sandalwood accelerate the energy to reach all the places, the home was now trapped with the energy.The smell was still there so rats were away from my home as they don't like the smell. As per my theory, rats would come back after all the energy gone.
I went and told my findings, this time nobody was interested to listen me. They said rats issue was past, all are gone, you can go to your room and continue your studies. I went to my room and thinking yes, they have a point, the smell might live longer for a month or so, by the time harvest would be over, rice would go to mill and be sold, monsoon would become peak and rats won't come out . Even if the energy was completely gone, how much time it will take to re-do the ritual? I was satisfied with everything, and i slept quietly.
Back home in India, we always had rat issue when i was kid. We used to have lengthy discussions, brainstorm and strategy session to go through how to catch rats. The issue was, the rats came only at night to spoil our food and other eatables. It was suggested that, to have cat at home to scare rats and have a dog also to scare cat, so cat would eat more rats. But one brilliant mind suggested that what if after all the rats gone, what to do with the cat and dog. Everybody agreed that point and scraped the whole cat/dog idea, we all went back to whiteboard.
I suggested one idea that i would wake up daily night for a week to analyze all rats and its behavior and then make an appropriate plan to catch all rats. Nobody seems to agree, because i was too young to wake up all night and my plan was a bit vague to them . First i was angry with all of them, but then realized that it was my bad to blame others because i didn't explain it properly, so i decided to cajole again this time with proper explanations.
I started my arguments, as per scientific researches that rats are like human, they use rat for any scientific test before use it on human. Like human each rat was different, we can't use one trick to catch all rats hence we need to profile our invaders first and then come up with different approach. I started looking everybody face, they were not quite convinced. I thought my scientific approach failed, what else i have, my heart bumped and mind started spinning to win the hearts and minds.
I didn't have any more cards, i got an idea on the spot, i started again my argument, this time i used a practical jargon, see, Mama(uncle) used to be scared of elephant but not his wife. Chittapa(uncle) used to be scared of his wife but not of bulls. That's the difference, we have to had a solid plan to catch the rat because like human they also have their own preference. Now everybody agreed and they said that they need some more time to discuss about this plan.
I pleaded with them , time was running out, already we lost enough food because of rats now monsoon season also started. They said don't worry, everything should be analyzed carefully before come to conclusion. By the time, harvest started sooner than usual because of early start of monsoon. All raw rice were stored in front of our house, rat issue became Brobdingnagian.
I was waiting for a decision from all of them. They came back after 1 week, with the decision i most disliked. They apparently went to temple priest to find out any remedy for rat issue religiously. The priest misguided them by offering a ritual which was not in entire Hinduism practice. One said that before applying my unproven scientific approach lets try this cheap one and see the results, he even added that it was proven and priest used this ritual to stop rats at sannathi(a street usually named which starts from in front of temple) street.
I was in dilemma, do i need to stop this nonsense? or let them try this, at end of it, i can use it as my card to persuade them further. I said okay lets try this ritual and made a stress on my point that if this fails, i would use my approach. The priest was very busy with harvest ritual at fields, he gave an appointment ,a week after today, by the time, i sneaked at night and started my surveillance. The main issue with my home was, there are so many holes that rats used to enter, i can't close all of them because some of them are used to drainage rain water but can be closed if it not raining.
The priest came and did his rituals, the smoke was inside home and i loved the smell which is not ordinary fire, the fire was started by ghee and main fuel was sandalwood. I loved the smell but i couldn't see anything for sometime, my eye started burning. I wondered how come the priest sitting in front of fire, he was very close to the fire and he always burn the fire the height above his head, the smoke really start from where the fire ends.
After rituals, 2-3 days there was no rats, all clear, everybody happy. There are some rats but those are manageable by "Tiger" the cat we used to raise to control rats but no dog yet. I was surprised that how come no rats, so the ritual helped?. I was too scare to go in front of all, they might start laughing at me. I was right, one by one came into my room and laughed and started mocking me, see we had controlled everything by a simple ritual, what happened to your science and theory?
I was ashamed and started thinking what went wrong with my thought process? I still smell the ghee mixed sandalwood fire burns. I slept with too many wounds in my heart and felt hurt. In my dreams, i started chasing rat with fire on my hands, some stupid dreams, hell no, wait!! i woke up and i realized that the smell made rats away from my home, once the smell go away the rats would come back. Am i right? I asked myself 1000 times yes, i'm right, before i announce this theory to others, i want to make sure everything was right. I took my bicycle went to library, search for book at chemistry side, fire chemistry, i checked it, fire releases light and energy, ghee and sandalwood accelerate the energy to reach all the places, the home was now trapped with the energy.The smell was still there so rats were away from my home as they don't like the smell. As per my theory, rats would come back after all the energy gone.
I went and told my findings, this time nobody was interested to listen me. They said rats issue was past, all are gone, you can go to your room and continue your studies. I went to my room and thinking yes, they have a point, the smell might live longer for a month or so, by the time harvest would be over, rice would go to mill and be sold, monsoon would become peak and rats won't come out . Even if the energy was completely gone, how much time it will take to re-do the ritual? I was satisfied with everything, and i slept quietly.
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