Mother on a Mission - Jungle Justice - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post no - 66

Blackie with Pranav 

Panther’s anguish was unbearable. She was trying to talk. She was struggling to tell us something that was uncomprehendable. It was a mother’s desperate call for help.

Finally, the skies closed with an almighty last minute extra downpour. It was late evening. Outside the situation was bleak. Almost one foot of water in our garden. The path way to the main gate was slushy. Sodden grass lay flattened. It was slippery and walking was difficult. Oblivious of the wet conditions, Panther shot out and was gone in a flash. She was a Mother on a Mission -  To trace and bring home her tiny kittens.

Our family somehow made it to the road. The muddy roads were soaking wet. BDU’s English Professor was also out. I explained what had happened. Initially he took it as a joke but seeing our serious and earnest expressions, he swung into action. He called out ‘giligeli, giligeli (kitten in Amharic). He was also making clicking noises. The omnipresent urchin (small children) army of our Kable moved in to help. 

Soon our street was full of ‘giligeli’ battle cries. Some children did not know what they were searching for. But it was fun time for them. They walloped in the muddy water and some even collapsed into the small ponds and threw the muddy water at each other. It was as if R.K.Narayan’s Malgudi had magically transpired itself in front of us!

One kid put his hand into a small pond and gave out an all mighty yell. All the other searchers converged to the spot. Rapid Amharic conversation followed. I could decipher what they were saying. ‘The kid felt something soft in the wet mud’.  

We watched the kid grope around in the dark water. Our faces were ashen with anxiety and grief. He dramatically drew out something brown. We heaved a collective sigh of relief. It was a plastic bag full of kitchen waste that was callously dumped on the road.    

Patchy with Sahithi 

After a lengthy search we returned home with a heavy heart. The African night sneaked on us as sudden as ever. There was silence all around. Sometime later Panther dragged herself in. She was a pathetic sight to behold. Wet and shivering. She lost her will to live. 

Padma dried her. The usually lively Panther was now passive and resigned to her fate. That night’s dinner was sombre and faces were drawn.  It was as if there was a death in the family. 

Around 10:00 p.m. that night, Panther woke up with a screech that would have made a banshee proud. It was as loud as a siren. It shook us out of our slumber. Panther was scratching the kitchen door that exited to the backyard that had the Injira house. 

The minute we opened the kitchen door, Panther rushed to the Injira house and set up yodeling. Not knowing what was happening, we brought a torch and tried searching. There was nothing in the Injira house. Is it possible that the sudden loss of her kittens had made Panther mad? 

Panther was beside herself. In desperation she tried scaling the Injira wall. “There, there” Pranav screamed his lungs out. We shined the torch up to the roof. Sitting on the roof beam and shivering uncontrollably were two tiny, sorry looking and wet to the bone, kittens. 

It was a mystery how they got there. (Next day morning on inspection we found a tiny hole in the bamboo structure through which the kittens must have wiggled out and wiggled in). Somehow with lot of difficulty we could get the scared kittens off the roof beam.

The kittens were laid on our drawing room floor, shivering and mewing piteously. But Panther was not having any of it. She launched on the kittens and gave them an all mighty thrashing. There was no stopping her. She closed her front paws, slapped the kittens and boxed them to submission.

It was a punishment of a life time. Panther let out her pent up fury and it was an awesome display of jungle justice. ‘How dare you? How dare you? THOU SHALL NOT REPEAT IT AGAIN”. The message was driven in with brutal force.

After initial shock, the kittens whimpered into submission. They lay on their backs and took the punishment. After the brutal retribution, Panther snuggled them. She cleaned them thoroughly and sometimes the kittens cried out loud as her tongue would probe and take out something much to their discomfort.

Panther then fed them. Exhausted and frightened out of their wits after the wild adventure the kittens slept. Till date it is a mystery as to how the kittens survived the torrential rain and came back home safely.

After that day, the kittens were scared stiff of their laid back, gentle mother. No matter what they were doing or how naughty they were, one mew and a stern look from Panther would get them back to her. Humble, tail swooshing and submissive. Such was Panther’s power over her kittens. 

“Raining Cats and Dogs” – Ethiopian Journey – Blog Post – No 65.

Sahithi and behind her and beyond the window is the Injira House

Panther was a kitten when she adopted us. Within months we noticed changes in her. She became moody and was quite touchy. She would mop in the corners and continuously lick herself. She would tear off pieces of paper or any soft material and prepare a bed of sorts. She was often restless and had a forlorn look.

I googled and found out the reason. Panther was pregnant! Quite innocently I broke the news in front of the children. From then on our life became full of tension. Both the children were on pins and needles. They would stalk Panther around hoping that she would simply cough up cute kittens into their hands.

Worst of all, they wanted to tie Panther. Padma and me vetoed the idea. We did not want to shackle a free spirit. One day returning from the university, I saw both Pranav and Sahithi in the garden. They were crestfallen and close to tears. “what happened?” I asked “Panther simply disappeared” Sahithi replied with a heavy heart.

“So what” I said jauntily “she would return”. “Sometimes, I wonder how you became a teacher!” Sahithi said with clenched teeth “what if she delivers the kittens and comes back, all alone”. Even after a lengthy explanation both the kids were convinced that we did not take proper care of their    pet  and that she left us in a huff. I told them that Panther had gone to visit her relatives and that she would be back.

It was only after Panther returned that calm was restored in our house. The D (delivery) Day arrived in the night. The next day morning Padma woke me up rudely! I got up and goggled at her. “wake up, wake up, they have arrived”.

This commotion woke the children too. They shot off like mis-guided missiles. Immediately, I heard huge wails and sobbing sounds. I ran to the drawing room. I did not know what was happening! “Look Nanna” said Sahithi “Panther delivered rats instead of kittens! That too very ugly rats” she was totally devastated. 

New Born Kittens 

Looking on was the proud mother, Panther. She was unperturbed. Nestling against her side and feeding were three tiniest kittens! Almost the size of our little finger and they looked like small rats! Later when the children were not around, we picked up the kittens and examined them. They were very small and their eyes were tightly shut. If a finger was put near their mouth they would try to suck on it, greedily.

We told the skeptical children that they were kittens and not rats. I told them that they would grow slowly and that the eyes would open after twenty-one days. The waiting was too much for Sahithi. She would patiently sit near Panther and wait. But the kittens were oblivious of her presence. They would feed or sleep. Sahithi named the kittens. They became Snowy, Snowball and Snowbell. But a tragedy was about to strike!

Their eyes opened and they started to play with themselves. Sahithi would pick them up but they were too young. They always wanted to be with their mother. Pranav’s birthday was coming up and we put the kittens in a cardboard box and placed them at one end of the garden.

The next few days we were busy with Pranav’s birthday party planning, preparation of the items and the actual party itself. The party was a huge success.

The day after Pranav’s birthday, Sahithi broke the bad news. She told us that her kittens had simply disappeared into thin air. We searched the entire Kable. They were not to be found. Strangely Panther was not perturbed. She would disappear too and come back after some time.

Much later, we saw the three hooligans quite frequently. They would come and bask themselves on our garden wall. But they were completely wild and would run away if approached. It was a huge let-down for Sahithi. May be that was the reason why, Panther did not get them back to our house. She was astute enough to understand that her first litter was not very people friendly!

The cycle repeated six months later and Panther was expecting again.  This time we prepared a cardboard box bed and lined it with grass. Padma put some food and water. Panther was curious about her new nursing quarters. She went inside the box and settled down.

She gave out a series of purrs which sounded very much like ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’. Just to be safe, the cardboard box was placed in the Injira house. Our Injira house was a ramshackle hut made with bamboo. As Injira making was laborious and involved cooking Injira on wood based fire, most Ethiopians made Injira houses away in their backyard.

This time around Panther delivered two kittens. One was golden brown, with white and black patches and she became Patchy and the second kitten was black but had shades of grey. She became blackie. This set of kittens were friendly.

They were handled by us from a very young age and were totally fearless. They thought of us as their family. But they were incredibly naughty. They would hide behind doors and jump on unsuspecting passers-by. They would chase a ball continuously. They would happily sit in our lap and purr like a malfunctioning alarm clock that badly needed greasing! They would pounce on the broom stick and worry it just like Panther worries the rats.

Their naughtiness was about to get them into a great mess. One day the sky darkened. The atmosphere became ominously quiet. There was no wind blowing and it looked as if something sinister was about to happen.

The skies opened up. Rain in Ethiopia was fierce. We were enveloped with deafening noises. The power went off and it was eerie. We did not know from where the strange sounds were coming. Heavy down pour with hail stones! We opened the drawing room door and saw hailstones as big as table tennis balls. They were piling up in our garden.

Cutting through the sound were the Panther’s plaintive wails. We went into the Injira room. Panther was frantic with worry. There was anguish in her eyes. We peeped into the cardboard box. THE KITTENS HAD DISAPPEARED. I dare not look at Sahithi. It was heart breaking. To lose one set of kittens was bad enough but losing the second set was sheer disaster.

“Gosh” said a thunderstruck Padma “It’s raining cats and dogs”. It was as if she shot me with a shot gun. “ussssh” I said motioning her to be quiet. We were in a mess with two very irritated females (Panther and Sahithi) and Padma is referring to “Cats and dogs raining”. Both Panther and Sahithi would not take it lightly. They might even think that any minute, their precious kittens would come down as rain!

The next three hours were filled with anxiety and hope. Panther was beside herself. It was unbearable even to look at her. She would dash around the house and mew loudly. She wanted to venture outside but it was raining heavily.

(What happened next ?????, Can lightning strike at a place twice ????????, Would Sahithi and Panther be heartbroken twice over ?????????, read about it in my next blog post).

Panther, The black beauty and the rag-tag cat army, Ethiopian Journey, Blog Post No – 64

Panther our pet cat with Pranav and looking on is Anasuya Devi Aunty, Padma's Mother. Notice the huge sunflower plants and the lawn that was very tough to grow. The pathway was born out of tough physical labour

Surprisingly Bahirdar had very few stray dogs. The number of stray dogs could easily be counted on fingers. Coming from a country (India) where stray dogs are dime a dozen, that was a huge let off. Dogs make life interesting. Ethiopians were scared of rabies and stray dogs were mercilessly hunted and eradicated.  

Cats were tolerated and loved. Even though there is a possibility that rabies could easily be transmitted by cats, they were on display in Bahirdar. They were mostly strays and would roam from one house to the other. These ferals would operate in a group with roles, positions and a well-defined pecking order.

The rag tag army relaxing after a nice meal

The rag tag army of cats discovered that there were new firangs (foreigners) in the town. They came down in a clowder and discovered that the pink house had promise! The occupants were animal tolerant, rather pet loving; there were kids around and where there are kids, it meant food. Also the cats were not teased nor stoned.

The cat army scooped in, fought over the left over food and moved on. They simply loved our Pongal and it was the elixir of life that they could not afford to miss! They would patiently wait in the portico and would eat their breakfast with gusto.

Once the breakfast was done and dusted, they moved on. But some stayed back. One of them was an orange and black tabby, Tiger. Tiger was quite affectionate but would spit and draw her claws, if we tried to lift her up. The children amused themselves by watching the cats from a distance.

Black is only in my name, Panther who loved posing! 

Then one day, walked in, a black beauty. Black beauty was a sight to behold. Jet black, she would have caused many an Indian to stop their journey just by crossing their path. But in Ethiopia, black cats were precious. They were the harbingers of good luck. Black cats were a premium and were the pick of the litter. Some were even sold and bought at astronomical prices!

Panther, she was christened. Panther was the gentlest of the cats that we came across. She was incredibly intelligent and very tame. She would come up and rub herself against our legs and give a small mew. That was her signal, “pick me up”. Once picked up she would nestle against our body and drop off to sleep. She loved us, but adored Sahithi. She became Sahithi’s most loved companion. She did not mind Pranav’s rough and ready games. If the game became rougher, she would jump off and run away. She was our pet but was free to come and go as she pleased.

Panther was worth her weight in gold. She was a great mouser. She was a killing machine par excellence. She would mercilessly hunt down the rats and give them the kiss of death - break their necks with a swift bite.

Sometimes the kitten in her would come to the fore. She would hunt her prey and knock the rat off its senses. Then she would lay next to the unconscious rat and wait. We could feel her excitement. Her tail would be swirling all the time. She was pregnant with anticipation. Once the stunned rat regained consciousness, the cat and mouse game was on!

Panther would literally play with the mouse. Allow it to gain some distance and then pounce on the poor rat. She would let the rat think that escape was imminent and pounce again. It was the game of death! The rat would make desperate screeching noises!

Not able to see the torture being inflicted, I would sometimes take out the poor rat into the garden. Panther would give a glare that said it all. “Shucks man, Come on! It was a game. Don’t be a spoil sport. Just when the game was getting more exciting!”. She would try to continue the game in the garden but allowed the rat to escape! It was puzzling to see her, toy with her food!

Panther the heroine with her side kick, ME!

Panther gained in confidence and started to look at us, as her family. She thought it was her duty to bring us gifts! Her gifts were messy and grisly! Every morning, the minute we opened the front door, the grisly gifts were on display. A stack of dead rats, neatly arranged!

Sitting next to the gruesome offering, would be Panther, expecting a pat on the back and a bowl of fresh milk! She could never understand as to why Padma always scooped her gifts and dumped them outside! “Never mind, you crazy Indians” she must have muttered to herself “I can always get you more”.

The cycle continued and the next day morning it was business as usual. Panther ensured that we were rat free. Panther was a bird killer too! She would patiently wait in the bushes and pounce on the unsuspecting birds.

Watching her hunt, I reminded myself “that is why the cat is called the aunt of the tiger”. Panther stalking and killing was like watching a tiger hunt! Only difference was watching a tiger kill, was like seeing a movie in Imax (the best movie projection theatre in Hyderabad) and watching Panther kill was like watching the same movie in a five-inch mobile phone. It was the same, except that the effect was minimized!

Sahithi’s early morning activities were organized. She would get up and if I didn’t have a morning session at the university, would accompany me in my morning walk in our garden. And tagging along us would be Panther. She was bored but she did it for her mistress.  

Sahithi was a silent operator. She would closely inspect the plants. She was our inspector-in-chief. Nothing missed her hawk eyes. She would talk to them briefly, enquiring about their health and if they had been watered. Sometimes she would even sing to the flowering plants. Initially all this was met with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But she proved us wrong. Our plants grew rapidly, blossomed and flowered profusely. Our main rose plant at one time had more than 100 roses! It was a sight to behold. It looked as if the rose plant was decked with roses and it had very little leaves!

During her inspection Sahithi would grunt suddenly, turn towards me and point an accusing finger and caustically say “NANNA”. Coming into the army’s attention stand, I would humbly follow her stare. What has annoyed my little inspector-in-chief? It could be dry leaves or withered flowers. She would not budge unless the pruning was done, immediately. It was quite amusing to follow her as she performed her duty, religiously and meticulously. 

Our Garden in Bahirdar "without Hard work nothing grows but weeds" - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post No - 33

Padma next attacked the garden. The garden can’t be called a garden at all. It was a front yard full of pebbles, stones and rocks. Padma was heartbroken looking at its state. It had construction rubble too! The soil was very powdery and she doubted if anything would ever grow in it. Padma tried taking the stones away but it was a back breaking job.

Seeing her toil without much success, I hit on what I thought was a great idea. I asked Padma to ask if Mulugeta’s (The Kable’s watchman) son could help. When beckoned the young man appeared. Padma asked him “Clear the stones?” The boy looked on impassively. “Clear, Clear” Padma was getting desperate. The boy could not comprehend what Padma was asking.

Padma showed him what has to be done by actions. The teenager slowly nodded his head. Padma heaved a sigh of relief. “How much?” she asked. The boy simply smiled. This was testing Padma’s patience. She said “100 Birr!” The boy looked on. “100 birr, 100 birr,” She remembered my bargaining in the market “Aend Meto, Aend Meto (one hundred in Amharic)” Padma was blabbering by now! The boy nodded and went off.

Padma waited for three days and later told me about her experience. “I don’t think the work is worth more, I don’t know what to do!” I went to my go for person when I have any issue – Addis Gedafaw.

Addis said “Anil, I am sure that the boy must have thought your wife was joking! I am sure that the watch man gets 25 birr (Rs 100) a month as salary. So when your wife said 100 birr he must have thought she must be joking. Being a kid and that too not being very good at English, he must have simply avoided the entire issue”.

Addis told me that typically most house owners would have offered 5-10 birr. Later I came to know that the Birr has tremendous intrinsic value and that most Ethiopians earned very little.

Ethiopian Maid 

Ethiopian maids were very famous. Most local Ethiopians would give their maids 30-50 birr a month (Rs 150 – Rs 250).The Ethiopian maids would come early in the morning and would stay back till late in the evening. Some of them are so poor that they would be happy to stay permanently in the Injera house if food and accommodation was provided.

They would do any type of work. Sweeping the house, cleaning the utensils, washing, drying folding and even ironing the clothes, taking care of the children, roasting, pounding and making coffee, preparing the dough and making Injira and the different varieties of wats.

In short they are super workers! And they would do it 365 days a year. Their washing of the clothes was a sight. They would wash the clothes in a small tub and they would bend and wash very slowly and very methodically. Padma remarked “no wonder they are so slim and agile. They simply can’t put on weight when they do so much hard work”.

The Ethiopian girls who worked in expatriate homes were super special. They could speak English and some of them could even cook Indian and European dishes. Most maids who worked in Indian houses would get between 70-100 birr (Rs 350 – Rs 500) per month.

These maids would be well dressed and were very stylish in behaviour. Most of them would address the Indians by name which the Indians found very disconcerting. Most would stylishly sit at the dining table and have tea and coffee along with the family. They considered themselves as working professionals! Some of them even pursued extension courses (distance education) at PEDA.

Pranav and Sahithi on the rocky mound that Padma created 

Seeing that help was not forthcoming Padma set to do the work all by herself. She worked like a lady possessed! I saw with astonishment as the stones and pebbles slowly disappear over a period of ten days. A small rocky hillock was formed at one end of the compound.  The garden had only two small saplings, one was a mango and the other was a guava. The rocky hillock would later take shape of a rock garden!

I went out and got some Cannas from the PEDA campus. We planted them on the either side of the pathway that Padma created. It was very difficult but slowly the garden started taking shape. Later we planted some marigolds, dahlias and Zinnias. We got some rose cuttings and planted them too.

Pranav and Mrs. Anasuya Devi, Padma's mother at the rock garden (earlier the rocky mount) 

What was surprising was the strength of the soil. It was the richest soil that I had ever seen. The soil although appearing dusty and lifeless was full of fertility. The plants would shoot up and in front of our unbelieving eyes would grow fast and start flowering in no time at all.

Zinnia plants and the garden 

In one instance I plucked out fully grown marigolds and replanted them in the path way. Padma was howling her protest “they are mature plants, they would die”. To our ever-lasting astonishment they not only survived but thrived and flowered profusely.

Sahithi in the front yard of our garden

The thrown away dried marigolds seeds resulted in literally millions of small plants. It was heart breaking plucking and throwing them away as weeds! Contrast that with what happens in India. Even a humble plant like the marigold has to be bought and it would cost at least 50-60 rupees a plant.

Our pathway and Panther the black cat that was incredibly tame!

We had bought sun flower seeds in the market and Padma planted them. We were eagerly waiting to see if the sunflower plants would come out! Seeing sun flowers in our own garden would be a treat in itself.