Musings...just like that!

The other day, it had been raining a little heavily where I live and as expected, our garden was soon teeming with life that is normally associated with the monsoon. I was meandering towards the living room in an almost lazy way. And what do you think I saw in the landing of the stairs? A foot long worm trying to crawl into the house. It was a deep russet in color and as with most worms, I couldn't make out which end was which. I assumed it to be an earthworm and called for dad so that we could safely release the little fellow back into the garden. Dad got out a soft bristled brush and an iron winnow from closet and since I don't normally have an aversion for worms when they aren't the majority, I stood quite close to the little creature to assure that Dad didn't kill it accidentally. As soon as the brush touched the worm's body, it started writhing in an almost surreal way and started gaining ground towards the house. And I should confess, it was hilarious seeing Dad jump back like he'd been scalded! As it turns out, it wasn't a worm at all! It was a baby snake who had gotten lost and to be honest, I don't think Dad was too enthusiastic about sparing its life when he deduced the proper species of the reptile and deemed it poisonous.

But thanks to my persuasion, he did manage to get the little tyke out of the house and back to the garden's long forgotten corner. This episode got me thinking... why are we averted by certain things just by the sight of it? Take for example the snake... True... it could've been poisonous and Dad was scared of it. But wasn't the snake even more terrified of the two huge otherworldly creatures who were prodding him with a weird looking thing? And it can't be blamed for being slimy and 'unsightly'! Wouldn't that mean we're actually doing something that we advocate others and out children not to do? To judge something based on its appearance?

Ah well... for now, the snake's safe... somewhere... I hope! And I'm here, sitting deep in thought as to what must've passed through his snakey mind when he saw us let him go like that... it must've been quite a scary experience for the little one!