Phobias, Manias, Philias

Yes. The words above describe extreme behavioral patterns like fear, obsession or pathlogical attraction to something. I have been looking for a specific term and I'm disappointed for not having found it. Fear of 'Periplaneta americana'. The term 'Periplaneta Americana' brings back memories of 9th Std. Biology? Well thats right, its the scientific name for that dirty insect called 'Cockroach'. Surprisingly, there is no term to describe on's fear for the insect. I assume I'm not the only one who is so scared of that lil creepy thing. All the adjectives used to describe bad, dirty, shabby, disgusting fits it well. Wonder why HE created it. We would have been so much better off without it. And I wonder why it survived all the big extinctions, since Carboniferous period.

I'm really paranoid when i see this lil creature hopping around my house. I can't sleep for nights together, get nightmares of my home filled with cockroaches in dreams! I hate its (obviously the cockroach's) ATTITUDE when it invades my space and goes around as though it owns it..its haughty attitude all too evident when its antennae dance around with pride, as though they are teasing me! I just can't stand it and scream so loud when it starts flying. The fear for cockroaches in me grew when I saw lots of big ones flying in Kumbakonam. Once you switch off the lighst in kitchen and go back after half an hour later, one can see literally 50 of them in that 20*20 feet space. Its no exaggeration! There have been days when i have found them on my blanket sharing the bed with me. Had one of those horrid experiences in Bangalore too when the goddamn son of the owner sprayed some goddamn insecticide. They got away from his part of the house but entered mine. Mom and i had such a hard time sleeping that night as my bed was filled with about 20 of them ...huh...I shifted out of my paying guest accomodation for the same reason..there were cockroaches and rats. Man...I hate Bangalore :( for its cockroaches and rats!


Well well my memory of those horrid experiences came flahsing back when i saw a funny movie. I believe the name of the movie was "the great outdoors". There are these 2 families camping and one night, the lady comes out screaming that 'something' touched her. Her husband remarks "so what honey, it has been touching you for the past 12 years and you have never objected!". It was so funny because he thought she was referring to his hand on her :) And lo! They see a bat flying....Everyone gets up. Following are the few statements they make:


It has got ears
It is flying (wasn't that too obvious)
It has eyes
It has got wings
It is coming towards us

And all of them dash out of the house. Its time for the men to show off their bravery. Without a startegy, they step into the house and come out as fast as they entered remarking "It is heavy - a 2 pounder..we need to draw a plan to kill that thing".
Later the two guys go in with brickbats, wooden basket to cover their head (protection you know), aiming aimlessly at it....huh it was fun! This reminded me of my ghastly encounters with cockroach..how i would aim at it from 20 feet with a small slipper and almost always miss it :( So anyways, they killed it finally!


That was cockroach and bats for you!