A story of finding a scorpion in our backyard, India
What was it like to find a scorpion in our backyard?
Well, I wasn’t there at the exact moment but the story is longer than that. I never thought of meeting a scorpion in India but well, life can be exciting!
We lived in India already for a few months and this time we were renting a place in Auroville next to Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. There were 2 houses next to each other without a fence so our house owners lived just a few meters behind us and the surrounding backyard was filled with high grass and small trees. We didn’t often go to the backs of our house as we had enough of the front space with a small fountain for children to run around and play badminton.
My youngest sister was 2 at the time and the oldest 5 years old but the hero of the story was the middle one Nadia, who found the scorpion. She was 3 and a half then.
As from my mom’s perspective, Nadia came to her urging to come. But as it usually can be, mom did not bother because of how many times kids come for some small trivial reasons and she had some more interesting things to do on her computer. But after some time Nadia managed to persuade her to come.
So Nadia said that she heard a cat meowing loudly which drew her attention. An important note is to say that the cats were wild. We did manage to tame them just a little so that they were not afraid to come to eat outside what we left them in bowls but not so they could be petted.
Story with the cat
Taking the opportunity I will tell you one short and very funny (maybe not for everyone) story.
The cats started to come to steal what they could and we started to leave outside the bowls of what was left and suitable for them. First, there were 2 cats but then it turned out there were more in the surroundings. To note – people in India rarely tame pets.
So they came oftener and the small thread of trust was building up. We noticed that while leaving the kitchen/living room – which is with the front door – the small thieves would get in and lurk around for food. As it is India it was hot and we had our front doors always open. So few times happened that the cats came in and when we showed up ran away with the speed of light.
But one time a ginger cat was not careful enough and didn’t see us in the second part of the room. As we managed to close the door behind the cat, it was so startled it literally started running up the walls. The kids including me (I was 13 then) were amazed.
In the living room, we had stairs that led on the rooftop but were closed. So after calming down the cat hid on the stairs. After a while of trying to calm it down, maybe tame a little we were obligated to open the door and the cat slipped between us through the whole room to the outside world.
Back to the Scorpion
So as I mentioned Nadia heard a cat and ran there to see what’s going on. She saw something but as her vocabulary was not that developed at the time she couldn’t tell it’s a scorpion. So – fortunately – she ran up to mom.
Then mom seeing the scorpion run-up to dad and he took things into his hands. It might have been evening as he hid the scorpion in an electrical box. The next morning he took it into the sink so we could make videos which compilation you can see below.
It was the size of a hand and dad, an experienced mariner, did not bother to tick it with a fork. Mom was shouting at him that he is should stop playing with fire.
The present woman, our friend, is the wife of the owner of the house and mother of my best friend.
I don’t exactly remember what did we do with the scorpion and where did we leave it but we certainly didn’t eat it.
