Cockroaches and henroaches

Cockroaches and Henroaches…

“You know, cockroach is the only creature which is existing from the time when the dinosaurs existed on the earth.” Our science teacher told us…

Soon, a picture of cockroach came into my mind…

It is a dark maroon coloured creature, having two long antennas at the apex of its mouth. (yuck!). I have never zoomed in to see where its eyes are located. Somehow, calling it an ‘it’ would be grammatically controversial. Because you definitely have a he-cockroach and a she-cockroach! That is, a cockroach and a hen-roach (this is the right word!). A cockroach and a hen-roach make out to produce siblings!!!! Ever tried to imagine how their mating takes place…well, I have no interest. I am afraid of cockroaches!

My fear of cockroaches generated when I was barely 5 years old. I had taken part in a fancy dress competition, wherein I had dressed up as “Ram” (from Ramayana). I had worn a dhoti and kurta…that day, I returned home, and slept with the dhoti on at night. Suddenly, I experienced a prickly tickling on my thighs in my sleep. I jump out of my bed, and a cockroach falls out of my dhoti…(eeeeeeeee L)…it was scary for a 5-year old.

However, I won third prize in the fancy dress competition.

Oh! We were discussing cockroaches…so some of them can fly too. Earlier, I have seen flying cockroaches, but now a days, I seldom see them. However, they do have wings! All I remember from the “Classification of Animals” table that I studied in my 9th standard is that cockroaches belong to the class Arthropoda. This class of animals had well developed thighs and legs (why the hell did they develop!). We had also studied the anatomy of a cockroach, wherein, there were detail figures of its cross and lateral sections….I wanted to tear those pages out of my text book, but then I would have lost the text of the adjacent pages!

A common experiment taught to us by the text books was that no living being can survive without oxygen. There, they had taken two cases. The experiment consisted of two glass jars…one had some holes on its cap, and the other without holes. Then COCKROACHES would be introduced in both the jars. The cap would be closed. The observation was that, after 24 hours, the cockroaches in the jar with holes in the cap, survived, while those in the packed jar died. I would wonder, why they needed two jars, they could have put all in one…the one without holes! The experiment would still have the same conclusion!

“What do cockroaches eat?” I asked my teacher.
“They eat anything”, replied the teacher.
“I’ve never seen them eat anything!”

But the immense satisfaction that I got, when I saw the crawling lizard on the wall, preying upon the cockroach is unexplainable! The food chain is a wonderful thing! It keeps us…errr, me alive.

However, over the years, I have generated some courage in my heart at least to kill cockroaches. I have seen my father grab a running cockroach, in his handkerchief, and throw it out of the window. And I feel that it is an achievement! On the contrary, I take a fleet, and run behind the creature, and sprinkle the killing liquid on it (him/her). Nowadays these creatures get used to insecticides also which I think, is serious issue that scientists should take up as soon as possible.

The way the cockroach dies on spraying of an insecticide is interesting. First it feels the burns on its back, and then to ease the burn, falls on its back….afterwards, it is unable to turn, and eventually it dies. It is gluttonous…complicated creature…perhaps it has eight legs…or six…I don’t know! I can’t concentrate on a cockroach!

All this apart, some people enjoy holding a cockroach by its antennae. They make it run as fast as possible by stamping as close to the creature as possible, but not on it. My aunt says that she loves the tickly feeling when the cockroach runs on her body….

Enough……I can’t write more….