It happened during the coffee break. We all went up to the Junction for our resuscitating cup of whatever, when we saw the tiny thing perched on the table , surrounded by a crowd. It was a baby kitten, maybe a week old. Utterly charming with its big wide eyes,and all other things so kittenish. She/he made Page 3 that day. A celebrity status was conferred on the tiny thing just the size of a teacup. People took pictures, of the kitten, with their cell phones; and it blinked adorably. All very well.
I asked the tea dispenser whose kitten it was, and he beamed proudly that it was theirs, meaning the kitchen staff. I am kind of goofy about all animals, and so the next day saw me looking for the kitten.there it was in a corner trying to push a metal plate around, and what stopped me in my tracks was the fact there was an open stove right there on the floor near the kitten. I told the tea dispenser to be careful about having open stoves, while the little kitten darted around exploring this "brave new world"!
The next day found me eagerly looking for the new interest, and I found it nowhere.I asked one of the canteen helps, and he mumbled, without meeting my eye, something about it being hurt.
My next question was about the vet, to which the answer was equally evasive.
I knew then for a fact, without anyone telling me, that the poor kitten's brief sojourn in this world was over.
It all came out many days later,that the curious kitten got hurt by the ,don't ask me how, huge grinding machine that does the batter making for the dosa et al.
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies" seem to be the motto of the canteen people, and also, "Get a move on," they seem to say, "its only a stupid cat!!"
That's where this blog comes in, my friends, at that very phrase "only a cat!"
Such a contempt for anything that is not human, that seems to be the common sentiment of most people everywhere.
Whenever I walk on the beach, I observe the stray dogs and I find them to be utterly peaceful, in that they remain in their own orbit, and never for a moment do they transgress that. They live in their parallel universe and yes, it is all peaceful if you can look at them for a minute as you would look at a another person, and see in their eyes,the shining light of intelligence ,the eager desire to communicate albeit non verbally.If you can look at them and include them in our universe, the world would be a better place.
But no, we need them as objects. We need to have pets around us, to look and behave as we think they ought to. Do we love them? I am sure we do, we feed them, don't we? We walk them, drool over them,and most important, we spay them.
Do we ever worry about the moral implications of this act? Spaying dogs and cats? You must be joking! What has morality to do with animals?
What about respecting the primary thrust of all species ? The need to reproduce. Do we ever see it as the natural right of an animal?
This blog is my personal outcry against all forms of neutering be it human or animal. We have no right to make this decision for another just because we do not want to be bothered by the matrices of mating and birthing of our pets.
What if roles were reversed as in "The Planet of the Apes" and we were lead out to the same fate that we mete out to our cats and dogs? Whither double standards?
The Jataka tales are about animals that are "Bodhisattva". The word, very roughly, means "the intention to enlighten other beings."
Enlightened thinking then, is not a human monopoly. I saw that beautifully illustrated in the movie "Hachiko: A Dog's Story". Hachiko, was a "Bodhisattva".
Whitman just sums it all up:
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained;
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins....
Walt Whitman : Leaves of Grass
I asked the tea dispenser whose kitten it was, and he beamed proudly that it was theirs, meaning the kitchen staff. I am kind of goofy about all animals, and so the next day saw me looking for the kitten.there it was in a corner trying to push a metal plate around, and what stopped me in my tracks was the fact there was an open stove right there on the floor near the kitten. I told the tea dispenser to be careful about having open stoves, while the little kitten darted around exploring this "brave new world"!
The next day found me eagerly looking for the new interest, and I found it nowhere.I asked one of the canteen helps, and he mumbled, without meeting my eye, something about it being hurt.
My next question was about the vet, to which the answer was equally evasive.
I knew then for a fact, without anyone telling me, that the poor kitten's brief sojourn in this world was over.
It all came out many days later,that the curious kitten got hurt by the ,don't ask me how, huge grinding machine that does the batter making for the dosa et al.
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies" seem to be the motto of the canteen people, and also, "Get a move on," they seem to say, "its only a stupid cat!!"
That's where this blog comes in, my friends, at that very phrase "only a cat!"
Such a contempt for anything that is not human, that seems to be the common sentiment of most people everywhere.
Whenever I walk on the beach, I observe the stray dogs and I find them to be utterly peaceful, in that they remain in their own orbit, and never for a moment do they transgress that. They live in their parallel universe and yes, it is all peaceful if you can look at them for a minute as you would look at a another person, and see in their eyes,the shining light of intelligence ,the eager desire to communicate albeit non verbally.If you can look at them and include them in our universe, the world would be a better place.
But no, we need them as objects. We need to have pets around us, to look and behave as we think they ought to. Do we love them? I am sure we do, we feed them, don't we? We walk them, drool over them,and most important, we spay them.
Do we ever worry about the moral implications of this act? Spaying dogs and cats? You must be joking! What has morality to do with animals?
What about respecting the primary thrust of all species ? The need to reproduce. Do we ever see it as the natural right of an animal?
This blog is my personal outcry against all forms of neutering be it human or animal. We have no right to make this decision for another just because we do not want to be bothered by the matrices of mating and birthing of our pets.
What if roles were reversed as in "The Planet of the Apes" and we were lead out to the same fate that we mete out to our cats and dogs? Whither double standards?
The Jataka tales are about animals that are "Bodhisattva". The word, very roughly, means "the intention to enlighten other beings."
Enlightened thinking then, is not a human monopoly. I saw that beautifully illustrated in the movie "Hachiko: A Dog's Story". Hachiko, was a "Bodhisattva".
Whitman just sums it all up:
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained;
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins....
Walt Whitman : Leaves of Grass
Not bad! You're getting the hang of it. Unforced; smooth reading. Great points!
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