ടോമിച്ചന്റെ പെൺപൂച്ചകൾ

Bob, before his adventure

Bob’s body is punctuated with wounds and scars. Most of them are inflicted by Modiji. A couple of them are knife wounds which only humans could have inflicted.

Bob is my beloved cat. Modiji is possibly Bob’s father because he is the only male cat that comes from somewhere and imposes his Mann ki Baat on my females, Dessie and Brownie. Bob resembles Modiji physically. Beyond the physical similarities, however, they have nothing in common.

Modiji was harmless until Bob grew up to adulthood and started courting Dessie and Brownie. Now Modiji and Bob are rivals. And Bob is the invariable loser in their countless encounters.

I named the marauder Modiji only because of his unexpected onslaughts on my beloved Bob. Modiji emerges from nowhere at totally unexpected hours – even in the middle of the night – and pounces on Bob. The assaults remind me of:

·      the farm laws which led to a yearlong agitation

·      demonetization which was nothing more than an assault on the whole nation

·      Covid lockdown and the concomitant exoduses

·      CAA and NRC and the resulting protests and official assaults on the protesters

·      CBI and ED raids on anyone who dared to think independently

·      monologues called Mann ki Baat

·      absolute disregard for the Opposition as is being witnessed right now (as I write this) in the new Parliament building

Bob carries infinite scars on his body, all except three inflicted by Modiji’s relentless assaults in the latter’s efforts to wipe out all opposition. Bob’s life has become a relentless struggle between resisting Modiji and being loyal to me.

Cats are not loyal like dogs. They are royal. You love them and they think the love is their prerogative. Try to tame them and they will tame you. You cannot get their companionship unless they choose to give it to you.

Bob is quite different from those cats. He thinks he is my friend rather than my master. He stays by my side whenever he can, walks with me, and never patronizes me.

But he left me last week. He disappeared on a Tuesday evening bestowing a sleepless night on me. Each passing day, my heart said he’d return.

Return, he did. Five days after his disappearance, he came wailing loudly and painfully. The cry rose from his very viscera. He looked famished. I rushed to the cupboard and pulled out the cat food. After swallowing each bite greedily, Bob would look at me and wail. I patted his back.

There were three fresh wounds on his back, all made by a knife. One of them glared at me furiously and the other two were healing. I visualised Bob fumbling along unable to trace his way back home. He had gone too far perhaps. Hungry, he might have entered somebody’s kitchen and found some food. A knife swished in the air. Not once. It is in my heart that the knife fell for the last time.

When Bob’s hunger relented, I put him in my lap and cleaned him, his wounds, and applied Mupirocin ointment to the gaping wound. He purred with his head buried between my legs. “Bob, I’m sorry,” I said. I sought my redemption by taking up the responsibility for the sin of the knife that fell on Bob’s back.

Now the wounds are all healed. But Bob is still scared to go out. Modiji continues to prowl outside with aggravated vengeance.

Bob is a living martyr. Tending to his wounds and scars is my means of redemption.

Related Post: https://matheikal.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html [Malayalam]

ടോമിച്ചന്റെ പെൺപൂച്ചകൾ

ടോമിച്ചന്റെ പെൺപൂച്ചകൾ