I love cats. I've always wanted them as pets and after a few tantrums, my parents (they are such sweethearts) let me have innumerable of them. Actually, we had generations of them. And all of them were darlings. They successfully melted baba & ma's hearts and the three of us cared for them like they were little kids in the family.
Let's start with their names... Mini, Puchki, Kali, Spotty, Betku, Ms Marple, Jhumri, Pushu, Moti -- they were the most pampered of them all.
Mini was a regal feline. We just stopped short of addressing her as "Her Majesty". She was snow white with golden fur on her head. She made sure she was always clean, ate only select fish & sweets from the best sweet shops, snacked on Nahoum's cheese biscuits and carried her "mattress" wherever she went (to avoid sitting on the floor of course). She even knocked before entering a room (trust me on this!)
Spotty's a dainty darling, very feminine and shy. She likes staying cuddling up to us all the time.Moti appeared on our wall one night. We had finished our dinner and she sat there looking so forlorn. I decided to give her a piece of fish. She took it and dissapeared down the road. The next day (night), she was sitting huddled up on the same spot, same time. She was never late or early. Gradually her meals included lunch, then breakfast and then snacks, too. She had her kittens in our "chhota" (small) garage (that place has become the cat's maternity ward ever since), and she would take a stroll with them in the evenings up to our front balcony, call us and proudly display her children.
Betku (one of Moti's offspring) loved showing off her antics. Jumping sideways or as high up as possible, rolling over, doing what looked like a jig.
But what they all have done best is teaching us to love, teaching us that love can only multiply. When they looked at us, we could see their devotion, affection, helplessness without us, their attachment to us. The way they followed my father around while he was gardening, or kept my mother company while she cooked. And while I studied, they sometimes dragged out a book, opened it(!) at a random page and sat staring, mostly at me, sometimes at the book. Puchki once chewed on a page since it was playtime and I, with my exams round the corner, couldn't give her and her ping-pong ball company. Only Spotty's with us till now. I miss them. I miss how they ran to greet me when I came home from school, college, work. My little friends.
