Me and Cats !!!

I love animals and over here in Trieste, Cats are one of the species which you would find roaming freely. If you approach any of these free animals who live in wild, most of them are scared to interact with humans. They won’t come near unless they see any eatable stuff in your hand, still are quite cautious. All of them look very innocent to me, and I am always ready to cuddle them.

Cats are one of those species are little scared of humans, but are also very cautious and careful. Most of the cats whom I approach to stroke, run away to hide in bushes, from where they look upon me as a dangerous alien, interactions with whom should be avoided. But not all are like that, although most are, but some are bold enough to explore the human touch.

When you approach some of these bolds, they first stare at you with suspicion then would do “mew”. If they are sitting they would stand on their for feet, and would make their tail erect when you  come near them, simultaneously also curving their back to make an arch. I don’t understand very well this gesture of them, but I feel that it might be a sort of granting permission to the stranger allowing him to get acquainted. I am good at mimicking the sound “mew”, and whenever I make this sound, I get a response. They come more near to me after saying “mew”. They would then start rubbing their body against my trousers. That means that you can safely stroke them, and they love this. If you touch their head they would lift their mouth so that u can stroke the neck too. They have amazing furs.

Water Crisis in my House

Yesterday when I reached my house, I found some pipeline construction going on just in front of the building’s door. They were digging the hole in the road to check the pipeline for water or may be repair it. As a result they has stopped the water flowing through it. I became aware of this only after I arrived my flat.

When I opened the tap in bathroom to wash my hands, the flow of water was low. I guessed that is must be because of the construction work going underneath. But I didn’t realize that water is only available for few minutes, after which it will stop.

It was time for dinner, so I rushed to kitchen to cook some rice and lentils. When I opened the tap, a very thin stream of water flowed through it. I was barely able to wash the rice. I then started looking through my window to gaze the workers outside, with a hope that soon they would finish the job.

It was taking long and my hunger made me more desperate. I decided to make food with the water available in the bottles from supermarket. I use this water only for drinking. By that time my flatmate also arrived. He is a very egoistic guy with hardly any concern for anyone. He entered the house with lot of vigor in his movements and then after few seconds quickly went towards bathroom. 20 seconds later he came out with a embarrassing face to inquire about water not coming. Like me he also peeped out from window at the workers with desperation.

By the time I put my cooker on gas and started making the stuff, the noise of the water pump stopped. I quickly rushed to the window, to see the progress. Well they were just arranging sacks in mud. However after some 15 minutes they did started the water. I was eagerly waiting for it.

I opened the tap and stared at it. There was a roar, and then a sudden gust with muddy water following it. I left the tap opened for sometime.

Just an hour without water and I became so troubled. I wondered about people who live their life with very little water usage. Within an hour I was able to realize the importance of water, while my flatmate lied in his bedroom with a who cares attitude, holding a novel in one hand and a glass of beer in another.

While these people were doing their job, many old people approached them to inquire about the progress and when the water will be released. Everyone was desperate to use it and felt very uncomfortable with the knowledge that something is missing in their lifestyle, even though in daily life that is hardly cared for.

Blind Lady

2 Days ago I was coming to my office. When I came out form the house, I realized that the day was exceptionally beautiful. the sky was damn clear and blue, the Sun with its glossy light was enhancing the greenery everywhere. While walking towards the bus station, I realized that I missed the last bus and thus preferred to sit on th seat put near by.

I just sat down and gazed the vastness and blueness of sky with smile, occasionally looking here and there. After few minutes the bus 36 came, and everyone entered through the first gate. Given the beauty of the day, the bus was very crowded. Everyone longed to go to the sea shore and stretch themselves under the sky taking sun bath.

I was standing just near the front door. there wasn’t enough space to move or to go towards back. Standing right at the front part of bus near the driver, one can see everything on both sides of road. The was lot of people everywhere, as though they were visiting a public fair. When the bus was about the reach the stop located near the Church, I noticed a middle aged lady, dressed nicely and wearing dark sun glasses. When The bus approached she did not make any gesture or signal to stop the bus. However the bus still did stop because someone wanted to get down.

When she heard the sound of bus approaching, she started moving towards the first door. She used her hand in order to feel and sense where she is heading. On seeing her the driver opened the door, but since I was standing at the door (due to crowd ), the door couldn’t open nicely and was half opened. By then she has already come to the door. She put her right hand on the side of left door and the left hand in between the two doors. She asked what is the number of the Bus. While she was asking this, the driver closed the door in order to reopen in nicely. Since her hands were kept in wrong position thus they were a little hurt when the door closed. After teh door opened again she just said thanks in Italian with a beautiful simle.

After she left and the bus proceeded, I wondered even though she is unable to see the beauty of the day, still she is happy and have a smile on her face. While other people who are completely perfect are always complaining of something or other, or fighting with someone. What an irony ???

Life In Color

I was browsing the site of National Geographic. Came across the photo gallery and found interesting stuff to share. Each gallery has a common color. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown. For each color they put a collection of photos taken from nature. Each of these photos were for me like amazing facts. Beside this each gallery starts with the description of the color.

RED : Red, the color of human blood, symbolizes passion, fire, love, and anger. In Eastern cultures, it also connotes luck and prosperity. Red occurs throughout nature, from dying stars to dying leaves, and humans have evoked its powers for everything from politics to sports.

ORANGE : A balance of playful yellow and passionate red, orange commands attention without overwhelming. This often flamboyant color brings to mind citrus and sunsets, fall leaves, and jack-o’-lanterns. Orange has even been found to stimulate appetite and creativity in humans.

YELLOW : Yellow evokes the shine of the sun and is found throughout nature and the man-made world as a color that commands attention. This highly visible hue is found on everything from bumblebees to school buses, traffic signs to highlighters. Misbehaving soccer players are shown yellow as a warning, and Tour de France racers know the man in yellow is the rider to beat.

GREEN : Green may be the most common color found in nature—it’s everywhere from leaves, grass, and moss to snakes, butterflies, and even the northern lights. Green represents life, vitality, nature, and, of course, environmentalism.

BLUE : The sweeping color of sea and sky, blue is a common thread in nature, seen in the cerulean of a whale shark, the indigo of a stormy night, and the cobalt of a peacock’s feathers. Over the centuries, the hue has come to represent calm, cold, mysticism, and sadness.

PURPLE : Purple is a versatile color. Combining the fire of red with the serenity of blue, it has the ability to soothe as well as excite passion. Purple is prevalent in nature in everything from eggplants to amethysts, and humans have adopted it as a symbol of royalty.

BROWN : Natural and earthy, brown’s warm tones are familiar in nature—think of rough tree bark, fluid mudflows, and dense animal fur, like that of the Kodiak bear. The color, which represents wholesomeness and earthiness, also shows up in man-made goods from clothing to chocolate.

For the glossy pictures check the following link

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/life-color-blue.html

A Dog’s Life, Chapter 2

This is in continuation of the story about Tomy and Koonchu, the two street dogs in my colony.

Koonchu has become very close to me and I also had a soft corner for her. We used to have a lot of fun and there are many funny incidents which happened between us.

These dogs are also intelligent creatures and have feelings and emotions. They really understand things very nicely and are also clever. Everyday I used to give Koonchu chapatis (a traditional Indian bread made from wheat flour and water). Since these street dogs are never fed nicely and are never served anything freshly cooked, they always welcome what they get. These chapatis are very simple and tasteless, even we humans don’t eat it directly, we always take it with some spicy vegetable curry or anythings else. But given to dogs or cows, they immediately take it and sometimes pull from your hand. They mix the dry bread with their saliva and enjoy the taste.

I felt a little bad as giving the same thing again and again to her everyday where I enjoy different types of food back on dining table with family. So I decide to also give her some biscuits and crackers along with the bread. This change was very good and she welcomed it with great pleasure. She cannot speak or show any gesture of thankfulness, but I read a feeling of thanks and gratitude in her glittering eyes. That day she sat on our house gate the whole night, with her body pressed against the gate. In morning when I opened the door to come outside and take some fresh air, she on seeing me quickly get up and started waging her tail. This was very sweet. Ofcourse in morning I didn’t had the bread, so I just brought biscuits and crackers for her.

My mom complained, “those things are for us and not for dogs”. I just smiled at her and went outside to give Koonchu Biscuits. On seeing me, she was very excited and started wagging her tail very quickly and I could also notice her watering mouth. Her husband Tomy was also not there at that time, so she can enjoy the good stuff alone.

Thus everyday from then I used to give her not just chapatis but also biscuits and crackers. And yes I can’t be unfair, I used to give these things not just to Koochu but also to Tomy. Now they no more fight and understand the needs of each other nicely. Koonchu get used to this new change. So whenever I used to come with only chapatis, she never used to eat it. I have to persuade her very much in order to make her eat it. I used to put the chapati close to her mouth, infact touching her mouth so that she accept it. She used to turn her head this way and that way, left and right in order to not to eat it. Since they cannot speak and don’t want to show anger, so its a very polite and cute way of saying no. After being fed up of me doing this activity of putting the bread at her mouth, she slowly accept it and take it very softly from my hand but then put it at the ground and started looking at me. Her looks were very expressive, she never used to look at be directly. If I’m standing on her side, she would keep the face straight and every now and then keep turning her eyes to see what I’m doing. I understood what she wanted, so I went in and brought the Biscuits. She was extremely happy that at last she made me understand what she wanted.

Sometimes I used to tease her also. I used to bring both chapatis and biscuits form kitchen, but by the time I approach her at the gate I used to separate the two and hold them in different hands. I then used to offer chapati first, to she how she behaves. She used to smell the chapati all over the surface and in the end used to sniff hard and stand there watching my expressions. Again she would keep the face straight and would look at me by turning her eyes. This was really cute, after few seconds, I would bring in front my second hand in which I was holding the biscuits.

Her eyes would glitter and tail would wage, and with a watery tongue she would take.

To be Continued …

A Dog’s Life, Chapter 1

It was a time when I was a school boy. I was something around 15-16 years old. In India there are lot of street dogs, and they are common. In my colony there were also some street dogs, but of all 2 were most common, rest used to come only some times, but these 2 used to live here only. One of them was male and other was female.

Street dogs are always hungry, no matter at what time you give food they never say no. We used to give them food very often and thus they become are good friends, because others in the colony was not bothered about them and hardly use to treat them with love. We named them Tomy (male) and Koonchu (female). I became very close to the female one. The two used to live like husband and wife. Both used to look for food together and fight together at times of problems. Tomy used to behave like a real Indian husband, suppressing wife, scolding her etc. koonchu was very shy in front of her husband, she never used to fight back . Whenever I used to give food to both of them, Tomy quickly used to finish his own and then comes to snatch the share of Koonchu. She never used to fight back to him.

Koonchu has some skin problems, her skin was having some red spots from where the hairs had disappeared. This gave her a sort of inferiority complex (I’m not very sure about it). People never used to touch her, while in front of her own eyes people show love and affection to Tomy and other dogs. Although she used to get food to eat but among humans she was considered an untouchable. This made me feel sad about her. I felt pity about the way she was being treated by the society and by her own husband Tomy (although many people claim that such notions of husband and wife don’t exists in dogs, but I’m skeptical about it). I thus tried to make Koochu realize her dignity and fight back for her rights. Earlier I was thinking not to interfere in their matter, but after one incident I had to enter the game.

The incident was, one day I gave food to both of them. As usual Tomy finished his food quickly and came to snatch the food of Koochu. I knew that she was also as hungry as Tomy may be even more. This time she growled at Tomy. This made Tomy angry a bit and they entered a small quarrel where both of them barking but in end Tomy won and she surrendered. The scene was she was lying on ground on her back while Tomy was on her with one paw of his put at her throat. This was really a hardcore suppression. I had to enter the scene in order to separate the two. Since then whenever I used to give them food, I used to stand by Koochu side so that Tomy cannot come to snatch her food. This also made Koochu to learn to fight for her share, as form then she used to fight equally with him.

Even though they used to fight at the time of food, there was love between them. Again many people say that such things are not there in dogs, well I’m skeptical about it.

Tomy was a rowdy dog, used to fight with many other dogs from other regions. he used to visit other ares and there fight with other dogs and get scratches and bruises here and there. When he used to come back and meet Koochu, she used to lick at the cuts and in end lick his mouth. I felt that it was their way of expressing love and emotions.

In order to express my love, I used to put my hand on their back. Dogs love this when someone moves their hand on their hairy back. I used to do this with Tomy but not with Koochu as she has some skin problems of which I was unaware. But I noticed that she feel hurt about it. So when I touched her for the first time on her head using a small piece of wood, she closed her eyes and felt very good. After that she became very close to me.

To be continued ….

United Colors of Nature

I took this picture while I was in IITK. At that time I was staying in old RA hostel. It was monsoon period. Certainly monsoon brings back life.

Makeup of human face is washed by water to remove painted beauty but over here its opposite. Water is used to enhance the beauty.