Episode 4: Katsaridaphobia: The fear of Cockroaches.

Click  for  previous Episode 3



Episode 4: Katsaridaphobia: The fear of Cockroaches.


Dear Ms. Fussy Zaroor,

I must confess to being positively exhilarated—or, if I may be permitted one small lexical indiscretion, Lexilarated—upon receiving your epistolary rejoinder to my humble observations on the delightfully labyrinthine subject of the US–Iran accord.


Equally enchanting were the bouquets and brickbats you hurled at me with such magniloquent panache that even the insults arrived perfumed with intellectual sophistication.

I am further tickled by the revelation that you not only wield your pen in faithful emulation of your revered Saar but have also contrived to replicate his physiognomy with almost unnerving fidelity. 

I harbour little doubt that your vocal cadences, too, resonate with the same mellifluous gravitas. Your sartorial predilections, coupled with your carefully choreographed poses before imposing Bookshop surprisingly named Epeolatry, my another blog series, bespeak an almost liturgical devotion to bibliophilic elegance. 

One is left wondering whether this is mere admiration or a full-fledged case of delightful Tharoorosis; a condition in which dictionaries become bedtime reading and polysyllables the preferred currency of everyday conversation.

I have a sneaking suspicion you hail from the tail-end of the Millennials, or perhaps the vanguard of Gen Z; an illustrious demographic for which I harbor an almost scandalous amount of admiration.


Nevertheless, my instincts compel me to place you squarely as a senior in the esteemed ranks of Generation Z.

Regrettably, however, I happen to be afflicted with an acute and profoundly undiplomatic case of Katsaridaphobia, an irrational yet unyielding aversion to Cockroaches. 

(Anagram of Cockroaches is Cache Crooks.)

Consequently, ever since Gen Z appears to have embraced these indestructible arthropods as symbolic mascots; I have found my nerves in a state of perpetual crisis.

Might I therefore venture a most deferential entreaty? Would you be so magnanimous as to persuade Saar to correspond with me directly? 

Such an arrangement would spare my delicate sensibilities  while allowing our exchange to proceed in an atmosphere of unalloyed civility and blissful entomological abstinence.
(Pankaj Khanna)


Urban gardener, rustic cook. Music enthusiast. Curious blogger since 2009. Cyclist for over five decades. Word lover: Epeolater. Anagram addict. Punster with pen in hand, pun in mind, and a pan in the heart/hearth. Steam-engine devotee: a ferroequinophile. Avid avian watcher. Magic-square aficionado. Retired mathematics teacher and an apprentice Lexicomedian.

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Click here for The Lexicomedy Line-Up: (The list of all Episodes published till date for your binge reading.)

(My  Blogs on diverse subjects: Eclectic Blogs.)

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