Sep 17th, 2011 by pavikavarma
Ever since I got to India, mice have somehow or another been messing with me! Now I know how Chef Skinner felt in Ratatouille! Rats can really be out to get you!! And considering that they are one of the 3 things I am deathly afraid of (lizards and snakes are the other two), I’m not quite enjoying my run-ins with them.
My usual encounters go something like this: It’s night time and we’re out walking on the streets when I see something move by the gutter/storm drains. It’s a mouse and it’s a solid 20 feet away from me. But that doesn’t matter. I’m already screaming and sprinting full speed in the other direction. All the other Indians are staring at me like I’m crazy while my aunt, uncle, and their friends are pretending they don’t know me.
We have all gotten pretty used to this routine, but none of us were prepared for what happened next. A group of us had gone out to a lounge bar and we were eating, drinking, chilling, and having a good time. I was sitting in between my aunt and her best friend Unaiza when I felt something brush against my foot. I didn’t think anything of it because Unaiza was wearing a long, flowing maxi dress, so I figured she had just moved a little and her dress hit my foot. But then, I felt something move up my calf, towards my knee, and I thought Unaiza was trying to cross her legs. But I still felt it was weird for her to be that close to me, so I looked down to my left and then shrieked like nobody’s business!! Sitting in between us was a little brown mouse that had wiggled its way up the sofa on my leg! As soon as I saw it, I dove onto my aunt, climbed on top of her, and continued to scream. A group of my uncle’s friends were sitting at the table next to us, and as they watched the commotion, they started yelling, “You’re scaring the rat!!!!! Stop screaming, you’re scaring it!!!” How the rat had more people empathizing with it than I did, I still don’t understand. Needless to say I was paranoid and skittish for the entire week after that because I was convinced the mice in this town are after me!
Their most recent attack? They chewed through all the cable wires in the building wiping out internet and phone lines for 4 days!! Not cool. I’m currently trying to convince my aunt and uncle to let me get a cat. It’s not going too well, but I’ll keep trying…
Posted in USC Dornsife Students Study Abroad!
