Inci Vinci tales!!

For those who know me well, one of my (sometimes irritating, borderline cute and mostly annoying) traits is that I’m mortally terrified of spiders. To the extent that even typing out their name freaks me out as I start imagining the creature and now I can’t take the picture off my head. It gets worse as I start feeling it crawling all over me. (Okay, thinking of skies and rain. Rainbows and roses. Taking a deep breath. Let’s continue). 

Due to the name anomaly, I had started calling them ‘Marshmallows’, but the current christening is ‘Inci Vinci’ thanks to a rhyme that Laya sings. 

So, Inci Vinci has played a dramatic role in my life which has been integral though traumatic. Ever since childhood there have been several incidents of me running out of house, out of classrooms, etc. for the same reason. Once one shows up in a washroom, I don’t use that washroom for months even after it’s caught. My friends and family will have their share of Inci Vinci dramas to share in plenty, thanks to me. 

The day I met my husband for the first time, he got rid of an Inci Vinci for me and that sealed our bond.😂 One day, he had to come all the way from his office (which was a walkable distance, still it’s a big deal you know) to take care of an Inci Vinci incident while I sat under a quilt with baby Laya trying to keep her from catching the creature herself! She was about 8 months old then and we were in UK at the time. Following that, we mailed the agents complaining about an Inci Vinci infestation, soon after which a lady came by to hand over a bottle of Hit to me. She said the Inci Vincis here aren’t scary or poisonous as the ones you find at your place. Well, thank you for that wise nugget, doesn’t change my feeling anyway. We did put the Hit to good use since then. Spraying every nook and corner and having dear husband inspect the place every time I stepped in! Well, enough about those days. 

Things are even more scarier at hometown as I expect one to pop up any time, day and night. It’s like we have a special connection. I can know it when one is in the same room, even before I see it. And I can spot one however deceptively it hides. It’s a bane, I tell you! And it’s as if it comes to say hello right after everyone else go to sleep. One night in 2020 during the lockdown days, I set up my bed with paints, brushes, and a few canvases planning to do several paintings together. It was a challenge and I was excited. So was the Inci Vinci. Right after I put out the paints on my palette, a particularly large and scary one came and sat on it!!

I ran for my life. I woke my brother, woke my mom. I was shivering and sobbing all the while hiding in my brother’s room! We did have a beautiful brother-sister moment when he had no idea what to do and just hugged me till I pulled myself together. Then, super-mom and super-bro went to the rescue leaving no stones unturned in finding and getting rid of the creature. Later, I just about managed to go back to the room to save my paint tubes and brushes. I slept at my brother’s room that night, and him, in the living room. Phew! That was one of the worst Inci Vinci experiences. It took me a while to get back to painting.

Recently, as I was picking Laya up from school on a rainy day, I found a little one inside my umbrella and asked a stranger if she could help me get rid of it. And since then we have been good friends!

Things took a whole new turn when Laya’s teacher Rethi miss brought an Inci Vinci figurine to her online class, making it move up and down! My vision was compromised for the entire class and Laya had much fun watching my expressions. 🙄

Today morning, there was a recap of the concept of Up & Down. 

Rethi miss : Everybody please look up and tell me what you see.

Laya : I see a bulb and an Inci Vinci!!

You can imagine the drama that unfolded after that. Thank god it was a little one, for the class wasn’t disrupted. It had come in through an open window and I couldn’t help looking up and on the screen back to back so many times that it may have looked like I had a squint eye. Taking Laya’s suggestions, my dear husband (he has become quite an Inci Vinci catching expert, I must say) saved the day once again. Poor teacher would have had no idea what her harmless activity caused here! 😊

Hoping for no more unwelcome Inci Vinci incidents, though it’s such an irony that each most incidents have given me something precious in life and if nothing else, a good laugh later.