Life As I Know It

November, 1996 stands out in my memory because that was my first encounter with the concept of death. My parents told my brother and me that our uncle had passed on and that we’d be going to Bombay to visit our aunt for a while. I knew what death meant. I had squished the life out of way too many insects to be completely oblivious to the idea of death. Yet, I believed death for humans was way different than death of insects and animals. I hadn’t seen other ants mourn for the ant I had killed. The ants just carried on with their task, when an occasional ant would stop and nudge the dead ant and it would just continue with the task at hand. When dogs got run over, the other dogs never stood around the dead dog and paid their respects. When we went to stay with our aunt after the funeral, I would always see her crying. I had never known her to cry. When we returned home, my brother came in to our room and sat across me and asked me, “Have you ever thought of what will happen to us if...

My best friend Chaitra came home when I told her we’d got Fenny. She knew how much I had been longing for a puppy. She is not a dog lover but she is not a dog hater either. So she came home and saw the tiny cuddly puppy and actually pet her. (Now before I tell you more about Fenny and Chaitra, I must mention that Chaitra is a cat lover and had never pet any dog before Fenny.) That moment on Fenny and Chaitra became best friends too. Fenny enjoyed Chaitra’s visits to our place. Once she actually climbed on her kinetic ready to take off with her. (Made me so jealous) Fenny had found herself a best friend too, she awarded my friend with several attempts to lick her face, jumping on her, spinning her tail when just being glanced at and being pet by her. When she calls up she asks about Fenny and her misadventures and has always made it a point to visit Fenny. Till recently I hadn’t realized how strong a bond had grown between these two. I’d be speaking both for Fenny and me when I say, ...

Last night I was watching TV till 11 pm. I then decided to browse for a while and then decided to watch some more TV and then browsed again. Watched Power puff Girls, Courage the cowardly dog, Shark and Criminal Minds. When I finally went to sleep it was 5 am. Woke up this morning at 9 am. Watched more TV and had breakfast (It’s something I do may be twice or thrice a year) The papers had more reports on the Mumbai happenings. The public has the same hysteria one saw soon after RDB was released. Looks like the youth is fired up to probably to pull a RDB on some of our politicians especially with all the updates about the government being warned of the impending assault on our financial capital. I’m sure the Congress party is having a hard time using 'brave officer' and 'Hemant Karkare' in the same sentence. Raj Thackrey is nowhere to be seen or heard. Hmmm… I wonder if the commandos got his tongue? The last page of the right hand corner of the Hindu talks about a totall...

When I went to stay at my grand uncle's place for a week I was planning on having fun and generally lazing around reading his collection of comics. Once I got there I was welcomed with a ferocious bark and then felt something furry going around me in circles. I was trembling from head to toe and I didn't dare open my eyes. My grand Uncle tied Ruff and only after that I stopped shaking and went inside the house. I had my lunch and was reading a book in the hall, when my grand uncle decided that it was time Ruff and I became friends. He went out and freed Ruff who came bounding into the hall and made a bee line at me. I have never been that frightened ever, he came close sniffed me and then jumped straight at me and licked my face with his tail going whush-whush. Very hesitatingly I pet him on the head and he took it as an indication that I liked him and within minutes I was giving him a belly rub and he was chewing my toes and licking my face all over again. That moment on we ...

I love animals and dogs rank first in my list of favourite animals. They have an affinity towards me which is reciprocated. I don't remember any time in my childhood that has gone by without me having made a canine friend. First there was Mary a stray who became our guard dog. All we did was feed her and pet her, she in turn guarded the house and accompanied my brother and me when ever we were out playing. She always used to lookout for us. She looked like a white lab crossed with a stray. An extremely well mannered dog. When she had her first litter, we were the only kids privileged to play with them when they were merely days old. Her pups bonded with us in no time. But since she was a stray we didn't have any say over her pups. People came and took the male pups. The remaining pups... well they met with tragic ends. I don't really want to get into details about that. But there were two puppies named Kappi ( because she looked and behaved like a monkey) and Thufan (...

In our old house my room was on the ground floor. I used to leave the windows open in the evening for Fenny, she loves sitting on my bed and looking out of the window. One day after a really long afternoon nap I woke up to find a small black bundle at my feet. I thought it was Fenny, but then this black fur ball was really small. I switched on the lights and to my surprise, sleeping on my bed was a black kitten. I don’t really like cats all that much. I poked the bundle, the little thing looked at me mewed and curled back to sleep. I poked it again and again and then it finally got up and stretched and yawned then looked at me as if expecting an explanation for disturbing it. All this while Fenny my puppy was sitting on the other bed observing this new visitor. She didn’t bark or attack the cat, for which I was thankful. I picked the cat and it was so skinny and frail and the silly eyes did it all. Instead of throwing it out I let it sleep. When I went to check on it a little lat...

My brother and I always buried any dead insect we found. The usual victims of calamities were ants. They would either be stepped on or sat on. For some unfortunate ants, their last memory would probably be of looking right into a big black pupil. Scrutinizing ants is a tough thing; you never see one alive if you are 3 years old while doing so. I’ve learnt that ants are always at the wrong place at the wrong time. They are lucky that there are plenty of them still around the world. So we took the dead ants to the “burial ground”, which was a little spot in our garden. We always wanted to “cremate” the ants. As we were both still really small, matchboxes were a Big No! No! Then one day my brother discovered the utilities of a magnifying glass. We carried our loot of dead ants to the terrace and gathered leaves and made a tiny pyre and then let the magnifying glass do its magic. Of course such happy moments never last long, what with parents stalking us like we were criminals!

A jar with some sand and lots of grass was my idea of an ideal set up to keep grasshoppers and ladybugs. Whenever I went out to the park I would look out for them and pick the ones I thought were the nicest and put them in the jar. I did this daily and soon I had a very colorful collection of ladybugs and a bunch of irate grasshoppers who always tried to escape. It failed to hit me that, maybe these hoppers didn’t like their new home. A few days later my mom advised me not to add more insects to the jar. So I stopped, only to notice on the very same day that there was a hopper in the jar that wasn’t moving. I removed it from the jar and inspected it closely, there was no movement and for once it wasn’t trying to escape. I carried my precious jar downstairs and set all the bugs free, and buried the dead one. I knew then that I needed to start with a much smaller pet and I saw this red ant climbing the wall. I picked it. I had been warned not to go near them. But really how pa...

Curiosity in kids is obvious and I was super curious as a kid. I liked catching bugs, insects and any creepy crawly creature. When I was 3 years old my interests in four legged and some eight-legged creatures was encouraged by my dad. My very first attempts at having a pet failed miserably. I had a fascination for lizards, and so I wanted one as a pet. Having decided that, I had to figure out how I would catch one. I didn’t think I had to consult anyone about trapping lizards so I decided to catch one my own way. So I ran after them, chased them, climbed the furniture trying to reach them but all failed. Then one day I saw this really fat happy looking lizard crawling on the floor and the next instant it was on my palm. Then it began its struggle, so I tried to get a grip on it and held it by the tail and the next thing I know the lizard’s tail was in my hand and the rest of it was escaping. The tail fluttered on my palm with what little life it had in it and then stopped. I didn’t t...