My father found this beautiful fellow basking on our window grill, in the cool green shade of our bittermelon vine.
I wasn't sure if I could see desert loving in its eyes, but then I'm a man without conviction. I would have liked to see it in breeding season when it turns crimson and black, and its colours are like my dream. Eventually I came too close and it scurried off into the undergrowth, which was hardly surprising, for it is wont to come and go, come and go. I did not bother looking for it. I know that when it's gone, it's gone forever.
Before someone calls me out, the references in the foregoing paragraph are not wholly accurate; it was an oriental garden lizard, not a chameleon. But true chameleons are rare in Calcutta, and the opportunity was too good to resist.
2 comments:
Stringing along (I believe) is another of its wonts. If I see that you've brought a lizard (oriental garden or otherwise) back with you...
No lizards were in my luggage. It strings along only until such time as it's gone; then it's gone forever.
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