Disquietude | Flash Post 465

Meaning?

Meaning concern!

About?

About the fact that the intervals between our posts are widening.

I realised it too!

Button, at this rate, our readers will dump us!

What do we do?

Shorten the gaps between posts.

Let’s write one right away. About this room of yours which is a treat for anyone’s eyes with all the framed pictures on every wall encapsulating so many stories!

Yes. Every time I see my mother’s face peering at me from a framed photograph right in front of my eyes brings to mind bagfuls of memories. One of the things I remember her most for was her ability to make herself useful and available to whoever needed her. She was a giver— of her time, her love and her ability to calm frayed nerves! The picture of Dost and me dressed traditionally reminds me of our home in Kolkata where a photographer friend clicked us before we moved to Mumbai. The chair I am sitting on is one of six chairs of an antique dining table that moved with us when we came to live in this city! The one where both your sisters are laughing into the camera is classic and one of my favourite pictures. They were returning from a meeting and their beaming faces gives away the fact that the meeting must have gone well. Another nice picture is the one where I am carrying your sister in my arms with Dost not looking too pleased! If I remember right, the reason for his glumness was the fact that your sister refused to go to him because he had forgotten to get Cadbury’s nutties for her, as promised!

Who is the man in a robe being flanked by Dost and you in that other picture? I have seen him somewhere!

A friend of Dost—the Dalai Lama—a much revered spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He was here for a spiritual discourse some years back.

Fascinating!

Another lovely one is of my in-laws looking lovingly at each other. The frame with my mother-in-law and the daughter Dost adopted from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity is classic and shows immense love and warmth between the two. The one of your sister in karate attire is adorable and I remember making nimbupani for her every time she took off for practice sessions. Till date I have no idea if she liked those karate sessions more or the nimbupani!

Hahahaha…

The walls strewn with pictures of our pets and strays who we have been feeding and taking care of for the past 30 years or more occupies a significant section.  It all started with Shabby, a stray dog, who we spotted chasing every vehicle that drove past him. On enquiring we were told that his human family had abandoned him and left the country and the act of running after every vehicle was because he felt that his family had returned to take him back home. One such day we got out of our car and gave him some food. He licked our hands, showed gratitude but continued to chase every car that drove past the building he had spent most of his life in. We continued to feed him regularly but that was not what he was craving for! That’s how our love for animals began. The feeding gradually stretched to feeding other strays as well as cats not only in the neighbourhood but further away. Throughout the pandemic, my daughter and I would go out armed with food packets and special passes to enable us to go out and feed them. There are photographs of some of the pets we’ve had and continue to have. That’s Magic who was the first pet who came to live with us. He was rescued from Crawford Market and gifted to me by Dost to help me get over my OCD! I have no idea how but my obsession for cleanliness worsened! Then came Mogambo and Mambo, two very handsome boxers but with very different personalities. While Mogambo welcomed visitors, Mambo made it a habit of chasing them away! Next came Mystique who was the most docile of all the strays followed by Rani who was just the opposite because she was extremely ill-tempered and ferocious but there’s a story even behind that. Mischief, our first cat, lived with us for almost 10 years before passing. Mowgli, a beautiful dark chocolate-coloured stray strayed into our lives and hearts when she landed onto your elder sister’s lap literally from heaven. She was with us for 13 years and your sister’s favourite child. And that’s Mojo who came to live with us when she was just a few weeks old, was diagnosed with hip dysplasia by the time she was just 1 and given all of 4 years to live by the vet.  She turned 14 in August of this year and though she’s immobile now she’s a happy kid and loves being pulled to the terrace and back sitting on a king-sized towel when we feel she needs to relieve herself. And then if course came Malala, a three-legged stray who was full of joie de vivre when she came to live with us but later became snappish because of the extreme pain she was experiencing because paralysis maimed the lower half of her body! And then there’s Messi who is king of all he surveys. Button, go ahead and tell our readers about a day in Messi’s life.

Named Messi by our readers—he can dribble a paper ball brilliantly. Messi’s day begins at 6.50 every morning when he wakes up your sister by actually tapping on her door with the help of a door stopper. The next step is to precede her into the kitchen once the door is opened and sniff around to inspect any sign of intruders who could have entered the kitchen like, for example, rodents or cockroaches! Once the door to the terrace is unlocked, Messi does a flip that lands him onto the terrace where he goes crazy frolicking around amidst flower pots, doing cat poses, cleaning parts of his body by licking them till your other sister comes along to capture him so she can brush him. He wilfully walks up to her to be brushed once in a while; yet there are days when she has to chase him all over the house with no luck at all! He eats twice. The rest of the day is spent playing in the garden with centipedes, butterflies and bees, sniffing certain shrubs, scrambling up with the aid of the iron doorframe onto the temporary awning and sleeping inside a hideout he’s discovered for himself. He also does a very capable balancing act along the top of the garden fence from one end of the terrace to the other.

Button, a cat’s life is one I am going to settle for in my next life for sure!

“A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land?”

― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies