Ahem

"One is busy either experiencing life or recording it. To do both, one has to be a writer." - Zanie

readings

# Emphasizing access versus ownership isn't just more sustainable, it helps ease friction from the differences between rich and poor.

# We all need to be rethinking how we sustain rising middle classes with rising incomes in a warming world, otherwise the convergence of warming, consuming and crowding will mean we grow ourselves to death.

(Two points to think about from "China needs its own dream" by Thomas L. Friedman in today's NY times)

Feline Grace

I was brooding about cats the other day. Yes, cats, those that meow, you know four legged creatures with extra large size whiskers on them.  Why cats, you would say because I see them everyday – loitering around on the staircase, outside the kitchen, on the landing, inside the kitchen sometimes, trying to reach the top of the waste bin on their two hind legs stretched as far as possible – they are one elastic being for sure. They would fall off from the top of buildings during their jump yet would spring up and run off in a jiffy – that’s how they are made up – like rubber balls. They are so capable of bouncing back – unlike  a deer with those stiff and clumsy, uncomfortable and brittle looking antlers. I bumped into an an article yesterday about glowing green cats – during a research on AIDS. Well the article went on to say that apart from humans and chimpanzees, cats were the only other animal that had the potential to take on an AIDS virus on them – cats all around the world. Well, that’s a fact for sure. It was an uncomfortable fact there, given that we have so many stray cats scattered all around the place.

Cats are not a domesticated keep where I live. They are a sign of bad omen traditionally so nobody would touch them or would like to have them around, forget about letting them in the kitchen or in your living room, near the fire, comfy together – like a scene from one of those Blyton novels. Cats are related to death, somehow. By this standard, no cats are welcome around our neighbourhood. Earlier they used to sneak into kitchens from here and there and everywhere given the old structures with lots of (loop) holes. But given all new constructions these days, all houses have been replaced or refurbished with new ones taking particular care that all sides are sealed with no openings whatsoever even for the mosquitoes that are so rampant in their right season, breeding on the stagnant pools of water along the Bagmati river and entering homes in scores even if slightest hole is left unattended . So cats around the place started with their long forced fasting  - no food led to no energy, lean cats, with ever more sad eyes.

Mom has her own theory, so she feeds them everyday with whatever leftover comes around the kitchen, which she makes sure it does to the liking of these  feline creatures – some meat maybe, some milk and rice, curd etc. etc. So the mother cat along with her kittens – four, sometimes five wait for the feast. So much for feline grace!

I am right here

1.30 am, a stormy night. I have been awake for the past one hour to the sound of rain and thunderstorm. When the noise gets down, I can hear the tick, tick, tick of the clock getting louder by the second. The door click-clicks with the wind on its lock nearby, and another a little further away, a subtle fight with whatever's holding it.

The extinct 'Scrat' from Ice Age gives me his vacant stare from one corner. I habitually tap various pages on the pad - jump from one article to next, from one status update to the next - get bored and keep it aside. Am I thirsty? Should I reach out for the water? The light flickers ever so lightly. I shiver, a tiny breeze has seeped in through the hinges. His warm hand falls on me. He has been fast asleep. Eyes still closed, in deep slumber, he gentles gives his 'I am right here' tap. I smile and switch off the light to join him in his dreams.