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An iguana every evening

There have been several theories put forward by people trying to interpret nature and its laws. Some have interpreted nature generalising it by using a fundamental law famously known as the 'survival of the fittest' which on a broader view goes some what like this - The strong and the fittest survive while the weak fall out'.. 

 I have seen otherwise... 

Animals and human beings can live in harmony. We have seen this in the seventies when living in the Kharagpur I.I.T. Campus. I have myself seen it clearly also in Owerri, Nigeria. We lived in a two storyed house built especially for the visiting Professors, of the Owerri Federal University. These houses had been built after cutting down the bush. The bush basically meant forested land having dense undergrowth. The front door was very intricate, but would not close properly. So an iron gate was made. The sliding glass doors would remain slightly open. Through this a fat and very long iguana would come into our living room. It would live under the soft pillows of the sofa having three seats. At night we would never sit on that sofa and if guests came, we would encourage them to sit on the carpeted floor and, or, bring our dining room chairs over, for all to sit. The single sofa's would be used but not that triple seater as that could hurt and scare the poor creature, (according to my mother).It woulds squat on the handle of the fawn colour sofa and mark its territory quite regally. The black and red colours on its body very clear and quite fearful to us, but not to my mother. She would request us and Okone our Ibo help, not to disturb it. She has a great love for all creatures. A raven comes to her window every morning. She has to call out to it so that it does not fly off. When the iguana would leave in the early morning she would clear the sofa and be careful not to use any cleaner with too much perfume, This, she said would drive the creature off, forever. All creatures other than human beings hate the smell of perfune.

The tail of this creature was long and its head with the red bristles and red colour a sight to see.

Sometimes if we had too many noisy guests, my mother would shift the triple seater to one side of the huge drawing room. Thus from childhood onwards, my brother and I were very much used to having untamed creatures around the house. They did us no harm. We respected their ways and did not try to confront them ever. Unfortunately, I notice that the people of Kolkata do not practise live and let live in their own lives. They do not let 'the hawk perch and the crow perch too'. They do not realize that they are digging their own graves by their attitude.

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