Me & Sonu..

1:16 PM

Kitty : ( The lead cat woman) : Leave him to me, I know how to speak meeow!!

And the lady cat takes the onus to woo the 'Puss in boots' into the deal.   (Puss in Boots)

It's a luxury to hold a cat's attention and be one of her/his favorite person . And you cannot resist the charm they ooze if they really want something from you.  When I sift through the frigid frames of my childhood in my head I realize our family always had the luxury of feline companionship .

One of the picture very vivid and rather painful image is of the moment when my kid brother could barely  walk by that time, strangled a kitten to death before I could release the poor kitten from his hold. To this day, I fear having toddlers around cats . Those kittens belonged to the grey cat I remember we had when I was young. She died eventually of old age.

Then there were few cats that were visitors but not residents.

I vividly remember the January morning when Sonu entered our life. We were all up on the terrace on that sunday winter morning when Manish , my younger bro, spotted a cuuuute , all white kitten, in the house next to ours. She seemed lost. And My O My ... Wasn't she like the cutest thing ever.  Like a small white furr ball. It was love at first sight. Since the house owners were out of town for last three months we were sure she doesn't belong to them. Manish suggested to take her in , we would return it to the rightfull owners, in case someone comes to claim her, and in case no one comes she will be ours.

Everybody was delighted to have that cuute lil angel . We were scared to let her out in case she lost the way back home. Mommy was a bit skeptic to take her into the household as she would be the one to clean after her. But, to our surprise she went to the bathroom sink to do her thing..I wonder who taught that lil kitten the best way to go about doing her daily ablutions .  That was a stamp on her mannerisms and we were soooo lucky to have her in our family.

This January, marked her 9th year in our family as she entered into the 10th year with us. Sometimes, I wonder if that precise moment if Manish would have shunned the thought of getting hold of her and getting her home….she would not have been with us today. Life would have been different but not as beautiful as it has been all these years.

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Me and Sonu, before I left home for college, had a strange thing. Every night after dinner she would meow at me and make me follow her to the terrace. She will reach there before me, hide somewhere, and then pounce at my feet with her paws and then run away, that being my cue to run after her. She will soon get tired and start grooming herself.

After I left home for college, I have never been ther at one stretch , not more than 4 weeks.  Today being away from home is not the same as it used to be 10 years ago. Everybody is connected via cell phone and everybody is just a ring away. Except…except my dear sonu. I will never fail to ask "Sonu kaisi hai" and parents and bro's would try to be as descriptive as possible of her whereabouts . I wish she could talk over  the phone , what she say..'Meow ' offcourse.

But reaching there was never a moment of 'meeting' Sonu. Everytime I returned home, sometimes after as long as six months  she would come near me as if I had always been there. No sudden surprise or a sign of welcome ..I would feel privileged only to know that she  remembered me. I craved for a meeting but it never happened . Sometimes I wanna get into her mind and check what goes in her mind ..

(to be continued..)