Story so far: One late evening, I heard frantic  banging on the back door, which intensified with each passing minute. As I went over to investigate, I found that neither was anybody at the door nor the wind was at its play, but Still the door was eerily banging. Highly intigued, I yelled to my sister to have a look. Her expression was a mix of fright and shock at the sight of pulsating bolted door with nothing human in sight to cause it. Soon the whole house knew of the ‘paranormal’ events though they could not find anything on investigating the sight. But detective Hargun discovered some wood scrapings on the floor along with big scratches on the lower end of the door and henceforth the presence of a ‘giant rat’ was discovered in the back area than any agitated ghost. It was the fattest and the largest rat we had ever seen in our lives and was as mean as it could get. But soon, its atrocities had to end as super granny was there to save the day. She gave it a scare of his life with her broom and we finally got rid of it (or we thought so).

Read the full first part with its twists and turns here.

Catch up with the rest of the story below:

3. Welcome back?

Weeks passed and Mr Rat did not show up again in the back area. Life got as peaceful and normal as before. Soon, the summer intensified and we felt the need to switch on the air coolers to beat the heat. So, the cooler outside my window, which was the rat’s abode some time back, was cleaned and filled with water. After all the hard work, we switched it on only to find that it had stopped working. On looking into the matter, we came to know the cables to the motor had been bitten and cut off from it. Great! Here was Mr Rat’s another escapade. Bearing the brunt of Mr rat’s gift coupled with the summer heat for whole three days, we finally found an electrician who had the time to come over and do the necessary mending.

“Okay, now it’s over- once and for all” I thought happily but maybe too soon.

A few days later, I woke up late one night to drink water. As I proceeded groggily towards the kitchen, I heard a strange sound from the room adjacent to mine, which was supposed to be empty. Peering into the room, I saw something on the bed. From the bit of light that was coming into the room, I could see this ‘something’ scurry under the clothes kept on the bed. I knew what this something was! Mr Rat was back again and inside the house this time. I turned back and shut all the doors in sight in a jiffy. This rident could not be allowed it to roam in the house next!

The following day, I broke the news to my family. My grandpa also recounted having sighted a Rat dashing out of the house from the Exhaust fan opening in the kitchen wall. “Aha! So that was from where Mr rat had entered the house after failing in its attempt to enter through the back door!” So,The evil giant rat had entered our house of all things, what was going to happen next?!

Luckily this time, Mr rat was more than happy being inside the house. And mind you, contrary to our fears, it acted with courtesy and in a well behaved fashion. Of course, If we ignore that one incident where it jumped onto the feet of our maid as she was washing the utensils at the sink. Now, Don’t ask how she shrieked and jumped on to the kitchen stool kept nearby!

But anyways, that was the only faux pas the rodent committed. At all times, it remained careful not to invite wrath of anyone in the house. It had its own activities to kill time and  the cabinet under the kitchen sink  had become its favorite hangout. Why, the kitchen dustbin was kept here. Now my only sightings of the rodent were when it scampered from the room adjacent to mine to the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Also, its monsterization had been cured to a great extent. The reason? I think it was the delicious food it was getting to gorge on each day. With the stomach full, there was no more destruction from its side. It was living a peaceful life, roaming in each and every room. (I hope you remember how it was immune to the rat-traps and rat-kill medicines) Until one day, when it entered our drawing room. It so happened that I went there to get something, and heard some scampering noise from beneath the table. I could sense the room was already occupied and since I could not tolerate Mr Rat as my room-mate, super Granny was alerted. She immediately reached the sight and asked for her master weapon – the broom.  The same was fetched and delivered by my younger sister, playing her sidekick. The operation started by shutting all the adjacent rooms tightly, lest it ran into them for cover. Next, super granny entered the operation area armed with her broom while her sidekick waiting outside, watching the action through the glass.Surprisingly, the drawing room’s door was also shut firmly from outside after granny entered it. (Yes, sidekicks too, can get goosebumps by seeing rats near them  😛 )

In all this while, I was patiently sitting in the granny’s room, taking advantage of the abandoned TV. In between, I could hear my sister’s excited cheering for grandma or feverous disclosing of the rat’s hideout. After some time, I too went to have a look and the events were same as before. My Super Grandma, the giant rat and the powerful broom – all circling around the table,engrossed in a mad chase. The rat dashed beneath the table, followed by the powerful-broom.Next it hid under the chair but in vain and then sprinted to the wooden cabinet at one end of the room to save itself. Finally, The rat took advantage of its climbing skills and scaled the window’s curtain up to the rod used to hang them. On seeing it flee, My grandma hit the broom on the curtain. The rodent jumped in fright from it to the next rod, on which hung the door’s curtains. And as it was, the grandma’s broom was not able to reach up to the rod and the thumping the curtains were not having any effect, for the rat had too understood by this time that he had outsmarted the super granny. It sat in triumph at its place. So Grandma had to leave the battle field and the rat was left to rest. I wondered in the meantime, would the rat leave our home now like it did previously? This was an uncertinity because the window it used to transport from inside the house to the outside(for some fresh air, I guess) had been closed by putting a mesh over the grilled enclosure it had in place before. (This time, a carpenter had to be called to make a wooden frame for the opening)But anyways, the smart rat had his own ways to escape the granny, because we did not see it again inside the house. Hence, the super granny was adjudged the winner once again.

So, that was the tale of a tailed rodent who gave us a tough time but also got a good spanking in return.

“Didi! Didi*!!” I can hear my sister calling as I type.

“What’s it?”, I answer back.

“There’s a rat on the roof!”, My sister with her friend from neighborhood chant in unison,”We saw it scurrying from behind the pots  down into the duct.”

“Oh god, did I finish this memoir too soon..?” I sigh, closing the laptop’s flap. I seriously hope its the end!

*used for elder sister in Hindi