Hegde the Hegna

Hegde the Hegna is a friend of my friend's. S is an animal lover of extreme proportions. The only thing she's terribly afraid of, are cockroaches, albeit not as bad as my fear of rats, or hegnas, for that matter. Huge, foot-long (I can't say that now, without thinking of Subway), nocturnal bandicoot-rat. *shudder*

So my friend S and I were sitting in India Coffee House on M. G. Road, one of the cheapest and oldest places in Bangalore. So old, it could really do with some renovation. And cleaning. It's somewhere we usually go when we're broke. That was until we encountered Hegde the Hegna there. I now refuse to set foot in the place. S reckoned that the encounter had been too traumatic for me and so footed the bill. The lime juice was good, but I'm thinking how many rats there are in the kitchen.

This one time, we were having a mini college reunion in Koshys - sunday morning brunch, and a tiny rat shot past us from the kitchen and disappeared among numerous feet enjoying appams and stew that morning. M, who is jsut as terrified of rats, and I were sitting cross-legged on the chairs for the rest of the morning because the other two girls would not let us leave. I couldn't finish the rest of my scrambled eggs on toast for fear of what the rat could have done to it. The picture of a dirty, black rat sitting atop my scrambled eggs on toast didn't leave me for a few days.

Apparently, one is never 12-feet away from a rat. Or is that 8-feet? I have chills running down my spine at the very thought of that. The closest I've been to a rat is when one got into my room through a balcony and used my shoulder to get off a shelf and to the floor, to scurry away. I couldn't imagine having to get closer. My mum didn't have to. She had one foraging for dropped food between her feet at a local pani-puri joint just down the street. We don't go there anymore.

S, who has provided sanctuary for 2 rats in her own house, happens to think they are cute little things. Never mind the fact that they are disease carrying vermin that eat everything... wouldn't mind nibbling on your toes, even. I have vowed not to go to her place till she gets rid of the 2 rats. She'll just have to wait for pancakes with nutella, bananas and icecream that I've promised to make with her till she gets rid of the rats!