Last week I
was in Coimbatore for a couple of days visiting my cousins. Since I was anyway
there, I decided to pay a visit to a relative, a 71-year old lady who is living
alone in Coimbatore. I set out with my
cousin Arun a.k.a Anu (his pet name as
known to the close family).
Now, this
lady is an animal lover. You visit her any time and you’re sure to find a battalion
of cats and dogs keeping her company. Not so much of an animal lover myself, I
make it a point to notify her in advance of my visits so that she can keep all
her canines , felines and bovines (if any ) away. But Anu on the other hand
likes animals and had once adopted two kittens of this aunty when he visited
her with his wife. Even this time, his
wife asked him to get her a couple of kittens assuming that an endless supply
of kittens was sure to be found with aunty.
On reaching
there, the two of us were greeted happily by the septuagenarian. “Welcome Surya
and Arun ! So happy to see you after a
long time”
After the
initial pleasantries were exchanged, Anu’s first question to her was “ Aunty,
no cats or dogs now? We would love to see them “ This he said, not just because
he was fond of cats and dogs, but because he knew very well that I don’t get
along too well with the animate world save with a flimsy few from the human
species and with elephants from a distance. I like dogs on pictures and in
movies, but that hardly counts to find me a place among animal lovers.
At this
not-so-innocent probing from Anu, aunty’s eyes lit up and she said elatedly : “Yes, yes, Arun. I have 1 dog and 2 cats at the moment. Normally they are here with
me, but since you were coming, I shut the
doggie away in the adjacent room. Surya is not so fond of pets…eh?” She asked
me with a hopeful smile which I reciprocated with equal warmth of course, but not
the hope.
She,
nevertheless continued the stories of her many encounters and episodes with cats
and dogs and she told us how she became the guardian of this orphaned dog who
soon produced a litter of 8 pups.
As much as she wanted to, she could not keep
all the 8+1 dogs herself and hence decided to keep only one of the pups and
leave the other 7 and their mom ( I didn’t bother to ask about the dad) at a
charity home for dogs run by a lady. Soon she gave us a mini-biography of this benevolent
soul and her 500 odd dogs.
I gave her a
patient hearing all through her narrative. With all my apathy for animals, I do
possess a heart sensitive enough to appreciate people who take care of homeless
animals. If I was being civil and listening attentively with all the necessary “Oh
!"s and “Really ?"s ,Anu was stealing the show with more appropriate
questions thus proving to be a more active listener.
Suddenly
aunty’s eyes lit up again and she nodded her head enthusiastically and said: “seeking
attention…hear that? They are so
intelligent.” Initially, I didn’t understand what she was talking about, but
soon realized that she was drawing our attention to the soft thudding sound
emanating from the room her dog was locked in.
My thoughts
turned philosophical for a while. : How lucky the dogs are !! They make a thudding
sound on the floor and they are certified “Intelligent”. Here I have two post
graduate degrees and still battling my way to the first I of INTELLIGENCE.
She
continued her dog stories describing how good-looking her dog is : “fully white
save for 2 symmetrical honey-brown stripes on either side. And oh… the
eyes..Surya ….you must see...... like lined with Kajal… so pretty”.
My pasted smile
well on place, I kept nodding. Little did she know that I was not one to relent
an inch even if she said her dog looks like Katrina Kaif….well, maybe I would
if and only if it looked like George Clooney.
She then
described one of her late cats who she said was pure white with 2 black
coloured perfect rings of 2.5cm radius
on either side. She added philosophically : “nature has it’s own compasses,
dividers and set square..am I not right Arun?” she asked to the skilled
tool-engineer which my cousin happens to be. Anu was quick to consent . “
Yes..yes…aunty... you’ re absolutely right”, he said while I was raking my brains
on where Nature might be using her setsquare.
Now comes
the sensational part of the story. This pretty kitty of hers was apparently
bitten to death by another dog which belonged to her maid. Aunty hypothesized that
this was an act of premeditated, cold blooded felicide which the maid had
planned and executed out of revenge on her mistress for not taking her dog to
the charity home. For a moment I was
lost for words. Only punctuation marks came up in my mind.
????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
“ OMG … !!! What Imagination !! Or do
such things actually happen?”. I just hope and pray that Ekta Kapoor does not
come to hear of this , else we’ll have another soap opera aired for the next
10-15 years with cats and dogs as protagonists.
Caught in
the intricate saga, my mind was finding it difficult to match pace when amidst
the violently growing thudding sound (super intelligent dog, I must say), Anu
came up with a relatively harmless question. “Aunty, how old is your dog?”
To this
aunty responded reprimandingly, : “Shut up Anu,…… I am going to kick you.”
Both of us
were astounded at this, not knowing what was happening. “Why this sudden change
of demeanour?”, I wondered as instant flashes of the “Vidamaattai..??” scene
from Manchithrataazhu crossed my mind. (For the non-malayalee readers of mine,
Manichitrataazhu is the Malayalam movie, the original and best version of the
psycho-thriller which was later remade into many other languages including
Chandramukhi in Tamil and Bhool Bhulaiyaa in Hindi).
In an instant Nagavally turned back to Ganga mode and continued with a smile… “She is very naughty and very impatient at times..” Then turned to the room containing the intelligent dog, and said lovingly “ Anu Darling, behave yourself…don’t be too naughty. You know we have guests.”
So that was
what it was. The beautiful, intelligent dog of hers was named Anu. “Ha ! What
could be better ..” I thought as I stole a glance at my cousin Anu, who at that
instant looked like a cross between Jagathy Sreekumar, Johnny Lever and Jim
Carrey ( I know that is a biological impossibility, but that’s how he looked)
and I was failing miserably in my attempts to maintain a Meena Kumari
countenance.
Aunty then
continued: “ Oh ! You were asking her age Arun, she is 1 year old now. Let Surya
be here Arun. Do you want to go and see Anu?”
I saw this
as my chance and hastily said with as much a neutral expression as I could manage: “Yes..yes…why
not? I think you must go and see Anu.” To which Anu said “Ahem… may be next
time aunty, It’s getting late." "We must be heading back", he added taking a
momentary glance at me.
I agreed
happily as I was finding it hard to contain my laughter and was dying to pull
his leg, once outside the house. As we bade our byes to aunty, she was
overjoyed to see the sudden change in my attitude to dogs as I took my time
going to Anu’s ( the dog’s I mean) room and cooed and petted her (from outside
of course). “ Bbye.. Anu dear…. Chweetie doggy Anu…..” , I said louder than was
necessary for the dog to hear …much to the exasperation
of her namesake standing outside.
Outside the
house, I saw that the Jagathy-Johnny-Jim had suddenly turned into Clint
Eastwood- a totally expressionless man of few words who refused to even look at
me all through the drive home while I kept smiling to myself. But the Clintism
he could adorn only until we reached home where I poured out all the events of
the visit to eager listeners which included his sister, pregnant wife and
mother-in-law. They had a great laugh listening to how intelligent naughty Anu
almost got kicked, and he had no choice but join the rest of us.
Picture Courtesy:
1.http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/r/reliance.asp
2.http://trackingteckels.com/2013/04/28/scouts-d-litter-arrives/
3.http://www.aeromental.net/2010/01/12/walking-famous-cartoon-dogs/
