Gospel According to Dora
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| Dora |
Dora, my two-month-old kitten, loves freedom more than
my pampering. Now she spends most of her time on the terrace by herself or with
her mother. Hunger brings her down to me. She draws my attention by rubbing
herself against my calves and then goes and sits in front of the cupboard where
cat food is kept. Instead, if she goes and sits in the kitchen, it means she
needs fish. She is my master, not the other way around.
“Don’t be such a dimagi
naxal,” I tell her. She ignores me with obvious contempt. I understand
what she’s trying to tell me with that look. I am a free individual.
Authority exists to safeguard the liberty of every citizen rather than to
restrict it.
When I try to convince her about our
country’s glorious ancient civilisation and its present Vishwaguru status, she
hops onto my lap with a big yawn. There is no polite hesitation, not even a
glance hinting at permission-seeking, and no question of checking to see if I
am in the mood to entertain her. She decides that right now my lap is the
warmest and most logical place to be at this moment.
She lives in the moment. With no
concern for ancestors and their historical conquests. Try preaching religion to
her and she will give you that big bored yawn again. She doesn’t need any god or
religion. There’s nothing much that she needs. She is not “demented
with the mania of owning things.” No slogans, no ideologies, no quarrels.
When she wants affection, she takes
it. When she wants solitude, she claims it. She doesn’t jump onto my lap
because she owes me something, nor does she stay there out of any feeling like
gratitude or guilt. She exists entirely in the present tense, unburdened by the
need to prove her worth or pay rent for her existence.
Dora doesn’t seek permission to warm
herself in the sun. She simply recognises that the sun is warm, and she is
there to feel it. Jump in, soak up the warmth, and walk away when she’s done –
completely, beautifully whole.
She teaches me the freedom of unconditioned
being. That is the gospel according to Dora.
"Existence precedes Essence. And we invent ourselves, as we engage our freedom." Jean Paul Sartre.
ReplyDeleteHow to kill freedom seems to be the only agenda of India's present right wing. They have no idea of existence-essence conflicts.
DeleteWe can learn a lot from cats 🐈⬛
ReplyDeleteTrue. They keep teaching me every day.
DeleteTom, your Dora is such a gentle little creature... give her a kiss for me too, Andreja!
ReplyDeleteOh sure, your love is welcome.
DeleteIf you call her 'Dimagi Naxilite' then giving her bhejafry would make her a cannibal think about it.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, Dora loves watching the TV. So maybe I can think of feeding her with Bheja Fry. ;)
DeleteAnyone wise loves freedom more than pampering, although pampering is nice.
ReplyDeleteI would never accuse a cat of being a naxal, dimagi or otherwise. There is nothing Marxist about a cat. They seek to get what they want for the least possible effort, and once they've gotten it, they're done.
"She doesn’t need any god or religion." Nor does any fully mature human. A cat does not need to go through years of struggle and study to figure this out. Dora sounds like exactly the kind of animal Whitman was talking about.
'Dimagi naxal' is the latest catch phrase coined by our PM. He's fond of such phrases, like little children calling names. I was just satirising that... Dora and I are the best of friends: we leave us to ourselves as best as we can.
Delete