A lizard...

for Amit




(even if it's too little too late).

**

Don't stop me even if I've said this already, but I kind of like the lizards - geckos, actually - at home. This has to be the only family of lizards I've ever met that has evolved out their suction cups on their feet. So what they do is scurry across the floors with no thought thought to or fear of these huge creatures with flat feet that might crush them.

(I crushed one such lizard on the kitchen floor the other day. What was I to do? I was cooking and the stupid creature was getting underfoot. I felt it crack through my chappals: a shudder-inducing synaesthetic experience it was too.)

But in general this family and ours are great friends. We politely make way for each other on the steps - I stand by and watch as they flop from one stair to the next (if they're going down) or heroically risk verticals (if they're going up).

Like the lizard in Amit's forthcoming book, I suspect we actually talk to them - I know I do - and despite not getting one word they say, some real understanding exists.