WHITE SPACE | A family of animal whisperers

Published : Feb 23, 2023 10:40 IST I suffer from chronic identity crisis, which makes me think of myself as cat or dog, as the mood dictates. My sister’s standing lament these days is about the Komodo dragon lookalike Bengal monitor lizard, which was once found in plenty in the area surrounding her school. “Ma’am just threw a gecko at you,” one of the teachers said, knowing that relations between him and my sister were contentious at best. From that day onwards, my sister claims, the headmaster has been treating her with more respect—for her, this clinches the argument about the tokay gecko’s claim to love and reverence. “The identification with animals is pronounced in my elder sister, who, unlike me, can think of herself as reptiles too.” As the mammal-whisperer, it was left to me to rescue the civet and release it back into the garden, where its parents could see it.