ente kuttan
AN ELEGY
last modified 20100714_0952 gmt
Kuttan died young, very young – when he was just six months. But within those six months he had left an indelible impression on my mind.
He was my own – ente kuttan; perhaps the only one who would want to be, who would love to be, claimed by me as my own.
He died in the very early two thousand noughtees, and that was long back; but I miss him even now. He was such a sweet fellow.
“My Ann”
I have got an adsl connection from the bsnl a local isp. But none of the chat machines work on my computer; whatever mail I get are those remaining after being filtered by the gestapi ( indian + gestapo = gestapi) and that way I am being kept incommunicado with the outside world.
However I am allowed certain liberties – I am allowed to download podcasts for example. The data transfer that I am allowed at no extra cost comes to 1500 mb per month and there is a limit to the number of podcasts one can listen to in a month. So another use I was putting it to was watch the movie clips bbc provides online – I could watch the astronauts on the iss, and such interesting things. ( but that was some time back. now a days even there I am finding a problem - the advertisement film of kirloskar is shown very well but when it comes to the real movie it says it is not working and try again later. and next time also the same thing repeats – how come the advertisement part is working then, I wonder – has the gestapi decided that I should not watch the movies as well?
well; once in a while i try naughty america and play the trial clips available for free and i even down loaded one - absolutely no problem! may be that could be the one and only interest that the gestapi and i have in common. i for myself am doing it to tease the gestapi for i have in the past accumulated enough porn movies to last a lifetime and i dont have to go to naughty america to watch those "thingies" at all.)
Coming back to the bbc movies - in spite of those rather interesting technological ones mentioned earlier
“the one movie”
that I remember most vividly is that showing ann's mother - you sure have not forgotten the tears streaming down the cheeks of that handsome young woman lamenting her cerebral palsied child “ other children are running football clubs and all and my ann . . . . “
- ten year old ann is sitting on her lap, fiddling with the marbles in a bowl, may be part of physiotherapy the child was supposed to be undergoing. The pathos of it was heart-rending.
“my ann” - those were the words that touched a chord deep within my heart; some how or other it brings out the depth of the affection that only a mother can provide.
(Ann's mother is one hundred per cent certain that she will take good care of her child; her worry is what will happen to her Ann once she is no more there. But Ann is very young and she has got a caring mother. I am sure there are people working on this sort of problems and with the tremendous strides science is making it is very much possible that in the not so remote future they will be able to put a real smile on Ann's mother's face - wishful thinking ? i sincerely hope NOT.)
ente kuttan
Coming back to my story - there is no one I can call my own and I am afraid if I say “my so and so” about some one that “so and so” is liable to take offence and would want to shake me off desperately – I have learnt it the hard way.
But kuttan will not do that – no gestapi can brain wash him. Kuttan is too smart for them !
"Kuttaaaa . . . . . . . " I would call out loudly once in a while in my lonely house.
" Nghe. . . " comes the curt reply from where he is sitting some where near by with a terribly bored face, not even bothering to open his eyes.
"ghoosad budda; thang kar raha hei - the bugger wont let me even take a nap" probably so goes his line of thinking.
But if I call him again immediately after he will dutifully answer again.
he knows I love him; and he loves me too!
He was my kitten and one of the finest things that happened to me during the naughties.
Now the story in detail
In the year 2000 I had shifted my residence to a place far away from the madding crowd in and around the tvpm medical college and started living in a house near to the place where I am staying at present. It was a newly constructed house and had a comparatively large compound with a perimeter wall. I had stayed there for three years before shifting to another house during the early noughtees.
It was during the first half of my stay there that one day I heard the pitiful mewings of kitten from near by but there was no one to be seen inside the compound of my house and I thought it must be from one of the neighbouring houses. The sound however persisted and next day I looked more carefully and found that the kitten were inside my compound, in a pit dug up to plant coconut trees - the local “intelligentsia” had put the young kittens in the pit from which they are not able to climb up so that they wont be able to get out of the compound of my house and stray into their domain.
I picked them up - there were two of them - and brought them into the house and adopted them. Kuttan, “the” kitten, was one of them.
They were so young that I had to force their face inside the milk in the saucer to coax them to drink. The initial days were difficult what with my inexperience and they being too young, but kittens being kittens the teething troubles were over soon and they grew up fast. Though they were litter-mates there was a drastic difference that marked out kuttan from the other.
Kuttan was very affectionate and demanded affection.
When I am working he will come and start playing with my toes underneath the table and tickle me.
if I have not got up even after it is late in the morning he will make a mess of my mosquito net playing pranks and in the bargain will wake me up.
From the courtyard of this particular house where I was staying then one could get a view of the sea and I used to watch the sunset standing near the perimeter wall. Kuttan will come there, climb up and start walking up and down the perimeter wall in between stopping to nibble my fingers and hands and lick my hands . the passers by used to be amused by the fellow's gimmicks - I thought it was only dogs who lick you to show their affections, but this fellow used to do it to me.
One night I heard some strange sounds and looked up to find that kuttan had forced his litter mate on to its back and holding it there with his front paws was suckling on the tits of his brother. The brother was looking at me aghast wondering what was happening and helpless being unable to push away his stronger sibling.
I pushed the brute away. but I had seen him doing it again at least a couple of times more and had to chase him away for I was afraid the other kitten might get hurt. They hardly ever got a chance to be suckled by their mother and all that they had was the cows milk I used to provide them. Kuttan obviously was making a mother substitute of his brother.
Kuttan was a very sensible chap and showed lot of maturity never to be expected at his young age. Once in a while before I go out I used to put the kitten on the terrace so that they dont stray out on to the road and be run over by the traffic. kuttans brother a sickly chap, lean and thin, will some how or other climb down and will in no time, be back downstairs. the fatso however will still be there on the terrace when I come back in the evening and I will have to go up and bring him down - the bugger was afraid.
I have heard that gymnasts for example will have to start training before a certain age for other wise the hesitation that comes up with maturity will hinder their training. kuttan could imagine himself slipping and falling and the consequences and was aware of the risks of coming down from the terrace on his own while the other fellow's outlook was still immature.
Kuttan was extremely sensitive. If I bully his sibling for some thing he will within no time come back to me - especially if there is a chance of getting some food. but if I had scolded kuttan he will keep away and sulk at least for half an hour before coming back to me and resuming his playful ways. The brothers, that way were a real study in contrast.
I have seen the big cats in the zoo showing the sign of submission to their peers by walking with the legs bent and the tummy almost touching the ground; and once in a while when I bully him kuttan will do it to me! After all they are family but I wonder how could such a complicated posture be hereditarily transmitted - kuttan never had seen his mother or any other feline doing it!
Kuttan was gradually growing up into a handsome young man and would have been the most eligible bachelor in the locality soon. But it never reached that stage.
Though I used to enjoy all the lickings and nibbling that kuttan was giving me I used to wash the area with soap and water afterwards and i never allowed him to lick my face, for the fellow, for all practical purposes was a stray ( I used to be working in those days and was out of the house for most of the day and the kitten were on their own and probably were roaming about in the locality). I wanted to show more and more affection to him and perhaps let him sleep in my bed as he many a time wanted to do and so, it was with all good intentions that I took him to the vet and got them vaccinated against rabies.
Well; within no time both of them fell sick – I wonder whether it was that there was something wrong with the vaccine ( could be from an old stock or something ) or it was an all together different problem.
I consulted the doctor again and she prescribed some antibiotics and after a long interval I again gave an injection to some one, this time to a cat ( “gundamycin” as we used to call it in the olden times had by then become very cheap. And by the way. the young pharmacist asked me for whom the medicine was and when I said it was for my kitten he exclaimed – lucky buggers.)
I persisted with my efforts till the end and used to feed them using a syringe at the later stages. But unfortunately nothing worked and both of them died one after the other.
I buried them with my own hands and planted a fruit tree on each grave. Kuttan's brother's grave had a guava (perakka) tree while kuttan's had a sappodilla ( chikoo) tree and both were growing well till I vacated that house and left (are they still there near the kitchen-side of the house at kattela?)
The last thing I remember about him was the sick kuttan giving me a vacant look ; what was in his mind ? I wont be surprised if the bastard was wondering whether it is me who has done the dirty on him and brought him to his present plight ! - the M/F is quite capable of doing that; he was half human.
viceman
20100413
last modified 20100714_0952 gmt
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