THE CAT'S PYJAMAS

I love animals. Well, MOST animals. I prefer the ones that can be allowed to walk around freely without us having to worry about how our family will survive after we're eaten up by them. My family are a pet-lovers. Everyone, from my grandmothers to my neices and nephews is fond of pets. And my immediate family has had many species as pets. Lovebirds, pigeons, cocks, hens, white mice, tortise, cats, dogs, we've taken care of everything. And VERY well, I must say.We now have a 7-yr old pet dog. He's a pomerian( or pomeranian..or WATEVER). Actually no, he's a Spitz, not a pure Pom. And he's definitely one of da most sensitive, understanding n close to "human-natured" dog I've EVER come across. He knows when dad's angry, he knows when it's time for his bath, he knows when his vaccination shot is coming, he knows when it's time for his walk, he knows whom to go to if he's hungry and he DEFINITELY knows (and HATES it) when there's another animal in the house.

I was on my way to office(20 minutes late, as usual) when I stopped, hearing the meowing of a cat...a kitten actually, I could make out by the pitch of the screams. I searched in the direction of the sound and found a TINY little kitten (barely 3 weeks old) with the most BEAUTIFUL eyes EVER, screaming her lungs out. I looked around to see if her mother was anywhere in sight. She wasn't.

It's difficult to find out the sex of a cat. My colleagues and I realised it wen we got that kitten up to office. We tried finding out and concluded it was male. So what do we name it?? "Pankazzz!!" (Courtesy: "bhai, ask da pankazzzz!!" of Simpoo, Channel [V] Character fame) So Pankaz it was... Pankaz meowed uncontrollably (and SURPRISINGLY too loudly for her size) every two hours. It was later that we learnt that kittens need to be fed with milk every hour. We started doing that, and slowly he turned playful and instantly fell asleep on my lap (and my colleagues'). We adored it.

Boss came to office in the evening and saw Pankaz sleeping on my lap "Kahaan kahaan se kya kya uthaake lekar aa jati hai!!" ..Things were OK till she was in deep slumber. The problem began when she was stuck with her regular hunger pang. We gave her some milk but she was still restless. The office boy misinterpreted our instructions of takin it out and gettin it back for takin it out and NOT getting it back and left it in some garden. We looked for it but couldn't find it and went back home sulking and kinda cursing the office boy for his negligence.

Guess who I find in office next morning... PANKAZ!! The office boy had found her again that morning, in the same place we found he the previous morning, doing her usual thing; Screaming louder than her size would suggest. She was our guest for another day, I could see the displeasure on my boss' face increasing, but frankly, I couldnt do much. Pankaz was too small (and TOO cute) to leave her somewhere. I HAD to take care of it until it was big enough to take care of itself. I took it home that evening much to the surprise of my mom, disgust of my dad and disappointment of my dog, Rocky . Couldn't help it. And then, there was a revelation. My mom told me, Pankaz was FEMALE. So now, she cudnt b called pankaz. I called her anything then..."Kitty", "kitten", "aye", "hey you", "catty","Billo".... She kept giving 'hul' to my dog and I could see Rocky didn't like her ONE BIT. Very normal. Cats are WEIRD. and SCARY when you see ( and then feel ) their claws.

I didn't sleep that night. Billo kept meowing throughout. She was Fuss personified. She had to be fed every hour, she didn't want to sleep where I wanted her to sleep, she was too loud, she wanted to pee and poop at the wrong times (and in the wrong places), she wanted to walk all over my bed, she wanted to walk all over me, she wanted to get out of the room, she wanted to cuddle when I wanted her away from me. Yeah, I LOVED her. She FINALLY got tired and went to sleep at around 5 a.m. and that's when i got my 40 winks of sleep.

I brought Billo back to office the next morning. One of my colleagues had promised to take her home in case we dint find her a home close by. She'd give it to one of her neighbors, in case her parents didn't agree to keep her, she said. I tried all my contacts. Spoke to my dog's vet, spoke to friends who are pet lovers, spoke to people around office, put her picture up on a pet adoption site. No results. I knew I couldn't keep her home. I had a dog back at home, who had stopped eating and drinking coz of the presence of another animal, that too a CAT, in the house. Dad wasn't liking the fact that I kept bringing stray animals home JUST coz they were lying unattended. He felt i was behaving too sensitive.

My shift at office was over. I didn't kno what to do with Billo. My colleague lived at Ambernath, so taking her by train was out of the question. NO one else had agreed to keep her. I called mom and got a firm NO from her too. Namrata (another colleague) and I went to the garden to leave Billo. She didn't want to go. I didn't want her to go. She ran around, scared, confused and a little paranoid. The garden watchman asked us to take her away. I jus couldnt bear the sight of that small little thing trying to find some warm corner to keep herself alive. I carried her and without another thought, took her home.

Billo was a little disciplined that night. I made her a cardboard house and she accepted it as her own (after a LOT of coaxing & cajoling, though). She looked like the CUTEST thing in the universe sleeping inside it. I kept some milk for her jus outside her home and she drank whenever she felt hungry and went back to sleep. Towards early morning, she wanted to cuddle, so she climbed up on her house onto my bed and slept close to me. NO worries, no troubles. Rocky had also grown to like her, I guess. He went around after her supervising her moves and taking care of her.
The next morning, my colleague went back on her words. She said it would be difficult taking care of Billo since they had then moved to a flat from a bungalow. I didn't want to argue.

I had da hardest time finding billo a house. No one keeps cats. Don't really know why. I mean, OK, they're unfaithful, matlabi and you're just a food and warmth-provider to them. They dont come running to you when you're home after a hard day's work. They dont lick your face to cheer you up when you're down. They dont wag their tails and look happy when you talk to them , they dont do tricks, they dont care if you're happy or sad, dead or alive. But this is MY opinion. Dont kno whr OTHERS dont keep cats!

I prayed I'd find her a good home. And I prayed HARD. I finally spoke to my college friend , Leon and he in turn, spoke to his friend, Vivek and I finally got a nod from someone. Vivek agreed to take Billo on Sunday.

All of us in the house had begun liking that cat. My bro adored her. He played with her, took care of her while I was at office, let her sleep on his lap, fed her whenever she did what she does best (screaming).It was time to let her go. I could see no1 at home was liking it. I HATED it. She had grown comfy at home. I had grown comfy wit her. I wrapped her in a warm towel and left the house. She didnt make a sound. It was raining cats & dogs that evening and all she did was look at me with those LOVELY eyes. MAybe she knew I was giving her away. Or Maybe not, she's a cat, after all! She stayed steady and was deep in sleep after a while. Vivek took her and I bid her goodbye. Cant forget those eyes and they way they looked at me when Vivek took her away.

Billo's in Vivek's friend's house now. He has a big house with a compoud with 2-3 more kittens there. So I'm guessing (and praying) she's fine.
What's the point of this post, u ask? Well, I dont know. It's jus that, I never thought I'd do so much for a cat. Never thought I'd take da trouble of going househunting for a CAT. NEVER thought I'd grow fond of a CAT. Never thought I'd MISS a cat SOO much.

I feel like going and visiting her sometimes, but I'd rather not do that. I don't think she'd remember me. Dont think I'd like it to be PROVEN to me that cats aren't faithful and don't really have emotions or whatever...basically, they're NOT dogs...I wish I hadn't sidelined that thought while getting her home...But it's alright, I'm hoping she's being taken care of well...and I'd rather let her be where she is telling myself that she probably misses me sometimes too.

APUN KO TAG KIYELA HAI

I’m absolutely new to the world of blogging and knowing how intolerably lazy I am. my big brother CRD is doing all it takes to make me feel miserable about not posting after my first disaster of a post. http://www.scriptedinsanity.blogspot.com. Thats the link to his blog. He’s written wonderful stuff. So he’s told me about this thing called “tagging” where a regular blogger helps an amateur with topics that he’s written on so the fresher can blog his take on the same. Well, this is what I got from what my bro explained to me. Hope I haven’t messed it up.

I picked this one out of the three or four topics he tagged me with. Hope it doesn’t turn out to be more nonsensical than the previous post.


Major Peeves:

Everyone gets annoyed with certain things. I also have many peeves. But my major peeves are as follows :P

• Bad network: It irritates me to the CORE when I can’t hear the person I'm talking to over the phone or if my jokes get wasted cause the punch line has gotten lost with the network bars. Especially with the shitty Tata Indicom phones that we use at my office. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to be able to speak or hear even ONE sentence without those wretched noises screwing your happiness.

• Rickshaw meters that run too fast: Ok, I’m sure most of you have gone through something like this. When meters run faster than the ricks themselves. I mean, COME ON, its not even ten centimeters run and the meter's gone ahead by one digit! I’ve lost count of the number of rick guys I’ve gotten into a verbal brawl with, over their hyperactive meters. Yes, it is embarrassing for anyone who’s in the rick with me at that moment (INCLUDING the driver, of course) but I just can’t help it!
  

• Lumps of rice: I CANNOT stand a plate full of white, granular, iceberg-like lumps for lunch or dinner. And for some reason, my mom LOVES giving them to me. I actually spend about 10 minutes of my lunch/ dinner time destroying those lumps. ANYTHING to have independent grains of rice as food, man! (Even if they’re going to enter my digestive system in groups of fifty.)

• Pleasure: Ok, just before you think I’m weird; let me make myself clear, I don’t like the sound of the WORD, Pleasure. I don’t know why, but it just gets to me when someone says “It’s a pleasure meeting you” or “It was a pleasure talking to you”. I mean, aren’t there better words you can use to express how glad you are that you interacted wit me??? Like “It was NICE meeting you”, or “Talking to you has made my day!” or maybe “Knowing you has made my life so much better” or “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me!!” Ok, I’m getting carried away now. :P
  

• 7.45 p.m. (Monday to Friday): This is that time in the day, when I have to gather the guts in my body to “ask” my boss whether I can leave for the day. It takes a HELL Lot of courage to ask him that, coz what follows is a one-way questionnaire, that evokes from me, some honest confessions, some made up crap, some sentences in Caps lock, a few exclamation marks followed by LOTS of whining and abusing, coz more often than not, I’m asked to stay back and complete my work until my boss thinks its late enough for it to be unsafe for me to go home alone (which is usually around 8.45 p.m.)

• 7.00 p.m. (Saturdays): Refer to previous point for reasons.
  

• Public mein body-liquid discharging: This includes spitting, urinating, defecating (this may be in semi-liquid or solid form as well) and blowing noses in public. Seriously, don’t you have a bathroom??

• Online “Friend” Notification: This is only when a certain irritating person comes online …AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN & Again. People who know me, know who that person is. For those who don’t, just get that this person cannot be removed from my Google talk list.

• Orkut FRAND Requests: This one is common for almost all females on Orkut. On an average, we’re flooded with 10 friend requests, each day, from guys who have either zero friends, 50 female friends or 12500 male and female friends. Most of these guys think we’re “beautifull” and have a very nice name or think that our “smile is very nice” or think we have a nice “orkut bio data”, have John Abraham, Shah Rukh Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan etc. etc. in their display pictures, and want to make fransheep with us. I mean, seriously, do people actually think they can add random people and be friends with them??? I definitely don’t!

• Orkut FRAND Requests Part 2: You reject the frand requests thinking they’ll get the hint. Guess what, YOU’ RE WRONG. They will ACTUALLY send you a friend request AGAIN. You reject it yet again and this time they send you the request AND a scrap asking you why you rejected them and justifying their “need” to be your frand. And the cycle continues until you put them on your ignore list or something.

• Aaj Tak and Star News: Don’t think I need to comment on these. Ekta Kapoor should take over these channels.

• People who misspell or mispronounce my name: Quite a few people pronounce my name REALLY weirdly. I’ve been called everything from “Shir-lay”, Sheryl, Shali, to Sheela, Shaarli and Sarli and almost EVERYONE omits one letter or jumbles up the letters of my name while spelling it. While I understand that mine IS a relatively unconventional name, I think people should be more willing to spare me AND themselves the embarrassment and ASK me how my name is spelt or pronounced instead of dissecting it so mercilessly.

• Unstacked books or papers : Ok, this is a new finding and has been pointed out by someone close. Except my own things, I can’t stand to see books or papers which aren’t kept one above the other, neatly stacked and pushed to one side of the table, bookshelf or wherever it is that they have been kept. I will try and see that this is done no matter where I am. Did someone say Obsessive Compulsive Disorder??
  

• Mis-spelt or misframed written material: Ok, it’s not that much of a peeve actually, more an obsession with correcting spelling or grammatical errors. It turns out to be embarrassing for some people, but this is something I cant resist doing.

• Peas, Cauliflower: I don’t like these and if they do come into any of the dishes I’m eating, I actually spend time in separating them from what I’m eating.

• Woh Paanch Din: The monthly reminders of our femininity that us females get which end up making us curse men even more than we do during the rest of the month. I mean, why do women have to go through all the shitty things in life?? But its ok, We’re great…EVERYONE knows that, right???? ;)
  

• Animal Haters: CANT stand people who ill-treat animals. Feel like burying them all alive.

Ok, I’m experiencing a writer’s block. No seriously, there are a LOT more things that annoy me but just cant recall them right now. This post may have a second part, for all you know. Hee hee.

Anyway, congratulations for making it through this post. And, yeah, I know most of you now have one more addition to the list of YOUR major peeves :P

HERE...FINALLY!!!! (READ AT YOUR OWN RISK :P)

Ok, it's been, like, a millenium since I first thought of blogging. Call me lazy, unpunctual or a procrastinator, it does'nt really matter, I've delayed something I've decided to do YET again and it's not a very good feeling, you know. I wish I went ahead and implemented my "plans" more often. Actually, it's been a while since I've actually planned something. I've gotten used to everything in my life going contrary to what I plan. And now that I'm thinking of it, I actually waste most of my time making plans, so by the time my plans are made, it's too late to implement them. Tsk, tsk ....I pity myself sometimes (read always).

Hmmmm..It's tough to think of what to write about. Reading stuff your friends and family blog about inspires you to write yourself. It LOOKS like it's a simple thing to do...putting into words your views on stuff; it's NOT. All your essay writing abilities and grammatical skills seem to go trekking when you're writing. It takes at least two whole mintues to frame one sentence and another two to check if it's been framed properly. Ok, now that I'm thinking, it's probably just what I'm feeling right now, coz it's been ages since I last wrote. My creativity and imagination are on a vacation right now and it'll require a LOT of coaxing and cajoling to get them back. Well, what better time to start, than now?!

Ok,I've just read what I've written to this point and 90% of this post is pure nonsense. Makes me realise what people go through while I'm talking to them!! Guess I need to learn to organize my thoughts better. That'lll help. Ok, there I go again!

Anyway, the point of this blog was to welcome myself to the world of blog, bloggers and bloggerers. Hope I stick around.

Adios then...
Till I post again...


(I had WARNED U!!!!)