I am petrified of spiders. I am just too scared of them. I simply can’t breath with a spider around. I remember as a child I was mortally scared of entering the store room in our house. The store room was the territory of spiders. They were there in all shapes and sizes. And their webs were very big. I always made sure that there was a long distance between me and the store room.

I realized that the more I cleaned the house- the less was the population of spiders. So I became a cleanliness freak. I always keep on dusting the shelves and cupboards. My wife hates this habit of mine. She feels that too much cleanliness is also not good. She would rather let things be where they are.

There is one more reason why she hates me. Actually our daughter is afraid of spiders. Just like me. She is very scared of them. The moment she see one, she screams at the top of her voice. Now having experienced the torture myself, I completely understand her state and try my best to pacify her. But my wife feels that I am spoiling our daughter. She feels that there is no big deal about spiders and we must not overreact. She thinks this is nonsense.

I don’t know what to say. But we all have one or the other fear that seems irrational and idiotic to others. There are people who are afraid of escalators, there are people who are afraid of water, there are people who are afraid of dreams. My wife herself is afraid of crossing roads. I can also tell her that even kids cross road so happily. But I understand that there are certain things that make us vulnerable. We should not exaggerate them but at the same time we should not ignore them also.

Everybody has their own limitations. To each his own. But then, this is an endless debate. I guess my wife will understand one day. Right now I am more worried about something else. My daughter has just seen a spider in her room. I caught the spider and threw it outside but somehow she is very scared. She is not able to sleep and tomorrow is her exam. I am going to be with her. I just hope she feels peaceful and forgets all this.

Let me take your leave. Take care. Bye.

The entire night, the daughter slept peacefully because she strongly clutched the hand of “common man” as he sat besides her singing a lullaby.