It's the first time that our mum, Amma (Indu Shedde), has come to live with me. It is challenging to care well for a senior citizen, especially in the time of Corona, and with negligible house help. But it is also an opportunity for me to care for my mother, and a gift that deepens compassion and patience. As a friend texted me so perceptively, "Opportunities come to people who can do it." So Amma's Corona-era breakfast, for instance, is an expansive series: Warm water with haldi, honey and moringa powder. Apple/fresh fruit/dry fruit. A little green smoothie (spinach-frozen banana-dates-lime juice), then hot breakfast with upma/poha/dosa and chai.

However, a secret, unexpected visitor arrived around the same time: a rat who nibbled at apples, munchies and Dettol soap (ugh!). I was mad—I didn't want to deal with a rat menace, on top of everything else. Normally, I would immediately have used what maids call "chuha ka cake" (cake for rats), or rat poison. But I would prefer a rat-free home without killing the rat, if possible. I recently did an animal telepathic communication course, and their WhatsApp group is active, including tracing missing pets, etc. I tried to telepathically communicate with Mousu (sounds nicer than Ratu; I've no idea which one he/she is), and stupidly tried to negotiate with it: "I'll even keep food for you daily on the window ledge, but you absolutely must not enter the house. Or I'll have to kill you, which I'd like to avoid, so please help me." Ekdum passive-aggressive. But I couldn't get through to Mousu, so I requested the group to pass on my message. Here's how it went, with my responses in brackets.