Footprints

   I had heard them the night before on the roof and they were loud, unmistakable cries. I thought I’d pay the munchkins a visit – you know, to be a responsible citizen; also, mostly because I can’t just keep away from kittens. I climbed the metal stairs onto the cemented terrace and all I could think was about how quiet it was. Almost too quiet… call it spidey-sense if you want to, but my gut was telling me NOT to go further . Only, I wasn’t going to let my gut talk me into going back down. Taking guarded steps, I peered around the landing on top of the mini-terrace – nothing. No sudden blasts of color, no sudden movements and definitely no fur-balls.  “Hiss!” I froze. The sound was coming from behind me and I could tell by its intensity that I had hit the jackpot – sort of. I turned to see the origin of the deadly voice and I was five feet apart from the Mama Cat herself. Black coat glistening, lime green eyes burning, crouching in an attacking posture – she was the ep...

  “Ma, she’s running all over the place!” Jo was finding it hard to speak.  “What are you saying?” Jo’s mother was squinting and covering her ears, “I can’t hear you.”  “Wait, let this be over.” Jo tilted her head towards the window. Her mother nodded back. Then came a three second window and Jo all but shouted rapidly, “Ma, Ali is running all over the place, kya kare (transl.: ‘What to do’ in Hindi)?”  The feline was running from one corner to the other of the house, trying to stay away from the side where the most noise was coming from. “Let’s close the windows of that room and put her there,” Ma pointed towards the one room in the entire house that wasn’t habituated.  “But it’s too dark and she’ll get scared even more Ma,” Jo complained.  “Jo, whatever you say, she’s not getting into your bed tonight,” her mother paused before continuing, “and neither are you sleeping with her in that room.”  “But Ma, she’s frightened. Have you ever seen h...

 “ Akka (transl.: ‘Elder sister’ in Tamil) come quick,” the knocking at my hostel room’s door was becoming loud and impatient.  “Who is it?” I answered, pulling the covers off my legs. It was one of those lazy-Sunday-afternoons. I had finished off my weekend tasks, had a hearty lunch - courtesy of the ‘Biriyani Corner’, spoke to my mom about the Sunday service and was lying down to watch a movie.  “ Akka it’s me Shivi,” she answered back. I opened the door.  “What’s going on Shivi? Are you okay?” I looked my junior up and down.  “Can you come out?” she asked, “It’s important.” I raised my eyebrows, there goes my movie time!  When a junior comes to see you, it’s mostly because of some guy problem or some homework issue or some gossip-misunderstanding-trust-issue between best friends – so that’s what I expected Shivi to tell me. Instead, she’d taken me up to her third floor room and opened the door, asking me to go inside.  “Oh my God,” the w...

     Today started out with me getting screamed at by the elders of the family for trying to be a good person – atleast in my opinion. I had started out to go comb my hair on the terrace as usual. As I pushed open the grilled door to the terrace and took a step in my habitual direction, I saw the feral feline that roamed our street climb the stairs to the water tank. She wasn’t the loud type around me in the short times I have visited her with food, but now she was hissing. “Cats,” I thought out loud and then stopped abruptly. I realized she was hissing because of her little ones I saw on the previous day. Startled, it occurred to me that the little chillies were close by. I saw a dark patch scramble into the house and into Appa ’s bedroom. I threw caution into the wind, jumped inside and closed the door while explaining in perfect English to the mother Cat, “I’ll bring him (or her) back to you.” She just glared. The little carbon copy was hiding behind the only card...