Catty tales

"He's glamorous, promiscuous and clearly has underworld connections" - so true of my darling black cat, lovingly called Kalu. (Hehe... lack of imagination, I know...) But this one's for cat lovers... I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!


*********

In "A Dream of a Thousand Cats", Neil Gaiman wrote that cats ruled the worlds before humans did, and could dream themselves back into power – if only a thousand cats could dream of the same world at the same time.

Cats being cats, this is unlikely to happen in the near future, but it is a commonly known fact that cats live in a parallel dimension. They see more than we do, their goals and ambitions are completely distinct from ours, and possibly much more evolved.

Cities, too, have souls; they are complex organisms of steel and concrete and plastic and blood, evolving messily towards heavens knows what future. And as they grow and mutate, their essence leaks into their denizens – humans, by and large, are excellent indicators of their cities' evolution, but if you really want to understand the soul of a city, you need to look further.

Not much further, though, because an answer to all your queries is found in that most sophisticated of sentient urban life-forms – the not-so-humble domestic cat. In Calcutta, I was owned by a cat named Ao. Ao was a gentle rice-eater, slothful, beautiful and utterly loveable. Summers she spent in the garden, casting coquettish looks at bumbling, earnest neighbourhood toms. Winters she was found curled up on blankets and voltage stabilizers, purring Rabindrasangeet and only stirring a muscle when offered fish.

I was recently acquired by a kitten in Delhi. A tiny, helpless, grey-black striped bundle who won my heart completely by chewing gently on my finger within a minute of getting to know me. Since then, she's driven me completely mad. Now about two months old, Sherpa (climber of all, daughter of tiger, biter of foot) is cocky, brash, violent and greedy. She's noisy, dirty and unfazed by cold water, yells or dogs. My entire flat, myself included, has been chewed to bits. My guests have been assaulted, my newspaper articles defecated on, and my flatmate's family-creating potential possibly destroyed.

And yet Sherpa remains the most adorable kitten I've ever seen – she's graceful, bright-eyed, wild and utterly lovely, and now I can't imagine what life would be like without her. As I write this, she's toying with the remote, changing channels and waiting for the opportune moment to take a flying leap and land on my keyboard. What would she type, if I let her?

I'm Delhi, she would say. Deal with it.

It's not much of a theory, as theories go, but there's something to it. The only Bombay cat I know is pure Bollywood. He's called Mithun and is the essence of all things disco – he's glamorous, promiscuous and clearly has underworld connections.

There's really no end to discovering cities, or cats, both smug in their infinite complexity, both sublimely aware that you need them more than they need you. If you're thinking of changing cities, visit in advance and spend a few days observing cats – they might choose to tell you everything you need to know.

More from this writer:
http://www.samitbasu.blogspot.com/