Thus speak the animals to their young ones!

I saw Dr.Dolittle, a musical, starring the inimitable Rex Harrison in the lead role, in 1968. A remake of it with Eddie Murphy came later in 1998. I saw it too but consider the earlier version far superior. Dr.Dolittle is a veterinarian who knows the languages of all animals and even some insects! The people who claim to have the ability to conduct conversations with animals always fascinate us. We are fascinated more by animals who have the ability to talk to humans in human language. I do not know if you have read Chronicles of Clovis by Saki (H.H.Munro). Clovis is a cat that embarrasses every one with its sharp criticism of people with whom he comes into contact. In the novel, Miss Shumway weaves a wand by James Hadly Chase, a dog by name Whisky talks a lot and makes some contemptuous remarks about men around him!

While I was mulling over these gifted animals one day, I heard my daughter giving some advice to my little grand daughter about some do’s and don’ts. These are all advices that they never followed when young but still keep repeating them as a part of their motherly duties. Listening to her, I started wondering if animals too would be following a similar procedure. I have often seen animals chatting up their young ones and wished that, like Dr.Dolittle, I too had the ability to talk to animals. In the absence of it, I could not put my finger on what exactly they were telling their young ones but could guess it from the look of their eyes. I want to share with you what I thought they were talking!

If you subscribe to the view that dogs are man’s best friend, then I strongly recommend the reading of the novel Miss Shumway waves a wand by Chase. If you watch the prim and proper behaviour of the dog Whisky and listen to its caustic remarks, you would think twice before acquiring one. The news editors always say that a dog biting a man is no news but a man biting a dog is sensational news. If you talk to Whisky, you will feel an irresistible urge to bite the dog! But I do concede that there are dogs which are more human. What would they tell their wards by way of an advice? “Look young kiddos! You must know that humans have a nasty habit of taking it out on others when they get a dressing down from those to whom they can’t give it back. When they find themselves in such a situation, their easy target is us, poor dogs. So when a man gets a firing from his wife, don’t go near him wagging your tail. He may mistake it as a ridiculing gesture and aim a violent kick at your midriff. Wait until his wife smiles at him before you go near him again!”

Cats may be the cleanest of the animal kingdom but their intentions may not be always honourable. You will know it if you read Chronicles of Clovis where the cat, Clovis, has the annoying habit of becoming privy to some dirty secrets hiding himself under beds and behind sofas. He proceeds to make them public in front of others and embarrass the parties concerned no end. What would cats tell the young kittens? “Stop spending whole day watching Tom and Jerry on the TV. You will not only become couch potatoes but slowly lose your self-esteem watching that damned rat fooling Tom all the time. Get it into your fat heads that not all cats are Toms nor all rats are Jerrys.”

A horse to a colt, ‘Always remember that men admire girls and horses only if they are in an awesome shape. You must eat well and exercise well, take oil bath daily and gleam like a just polished black Mercedez. If you take up racing as a profession, remember that it is more important not to fall down and hurt yourself than winning races. Even if you have won a hundred races, the thugs will shoot you to death the instant you fall down and become lame. If you are not strong, men will treat you like bullocks!’

An elephant to its calf: ‘Being a temple elephant is the best job though there may be a risk of getting into prolonged legal battles as to what caste mark you should wear on your forehead. If you are nice to people, you may get plenty to eat. If you are lucky, a small girl from Germany may be so drawn to you that she might fly to your place every year just to spend her annual vacation with you. You may have an occasional trip to a hill station but let that no go to your head. If you misbehave, God knows to what extent the same adorable men would go to tame you!’

I have no doubt that every living being has a bit of an advice for its young one. After all, no horse would like to be blamed if its colt becomes a ‘jutka’ puller! The famous Tirukural that nothing can make a mother happier than hearing some good things about her young one applies to animals too!

Dear Sri,

Superb.I just wonder from which u pull out stories.Tuffy my labrador comes very morning to wake me up with a kiss,he sleeps in our bedroom,so me and wife have to be careful u see.

when he licks me in the morning on the face, to wake me up to take him for a walk, he seems to say " Firstly isnt my kiss better than yr better half ? And secomdly, do u take me for a walk, or do I take u for a walk ?

Great one Sri, i have so many of yours to read.My PC was giing me problems since a month, now its perfect, got the Windows XP reloaded, and its as good as new.

REgards.kamal

Originally Posted by Kamalji

Dear Sri,

Superb.I just wonder from which u pull out stories.Tuffy my labrador comes very morning to wake me up with a kiss,he sleeps in our bedroom,so me and wife have to be careful u see.

when he licks me in the morning on the face, to wake me up to take him for a walk, he seems to say " Firstly isnt my kiss better than yr better half ? And secomdly, do u take me for a walk, or do I take u for a walk ?

Great one Sri, i have so many of yours to read.My PC was giing me problems since a month, now its perfect, got the Windows XP reloaded, and its as good as new.

REgards.kamal

Dear Kamal
Thank you for being the first to give a FB, a lovely FB. I always consider dogs as more human than human beings. No other animal has such expressive eyes as dogs and from the way they look at you, you can be certain what they want to communicate to you. Cats are more fussy. They have a big opinion of themselves and the way they look at you with half closed bored eyes, you feel really insulted!
A very nice name you have given your dog there. I bet he is not half as tough as his name sounds!
Sri

Dear Cheeniya sir,

That was a wonderful write up.
I am a dog lover and always had them for company. My mother always said that they were much better than all the 3 of us. So loyal. I dont know if you have noticed that they have very beautiful eyes, So serene sometimes and I guess your dialogue on them seems very apt at our behaviour towards them .
Specially dogs sometimes when you see them youwonder what they are telling the litters in their own way . How they feel when the litters go away. Sometimes you feel them smile at you. whenever I have been upset I can be assured that Muffin my apso will give me company till my brooding bout is over.
Cats I dont know I find them very manipulative .
Its so good to know that you actually tried to read them even thought hey sayy nothing.
Infact not only do they respond to your verbal conversation by action but they tell something nonverbally to you that you understand . Sometimes a language isnt required to communication. Ironic isnt it!!
There is another person who would enjoy this write up as much as I do or probably more. Mrs. Menaka Gandhi.

Devika

Originally Posted by Devika Menon

Dear Cheeniya sir,

That was a wonderful write up.
I am a dog lover and always had them for company. My mother always said that they were much better than all the 3 of us. So loyal. I dont know if you have noticed that they have very beautiful eyes, So serene sometimes and I guess your dialogue on them seems very apt at our behaviour towards them .
Specially dogs sometimes when you see them youwonder what they are telling the litters in their own way . How they feel when the litters go away. Sometimes you feel them smile at you. whenever I have been upset I can be assured that Muffin my apso will give me company till my brooding bout is over.
Cats I dont know I find them very manipulative .
Its so good to know that you actually tried to read them even thought hey sayy nothing.
Infact not only do they respond to your verbal conversation by action but they tell something nonverbally to you that you understand . Sometimes a language isnt required to communication. Ironic isnt it!!
There is another person who would enjoy this write up as much as I do or probably more. Mrs. Menaka Gandhi.

Devika

Dear Devika
You know something? I had a dog with me only once, a pomeranian by name Bujjy. It died when it was just 8 and we all felt very shattered. It took us months to come out of this grief. Then we decided not to have any more dogs. The decision is in tribute to the wonderful company that Bujjy kept us and we considered her as my third daughter!
We were not prepared for another trauma of a pet dog leaving us.
It is strange that dogs are able to leave their mother and siblings and live in a totally alien surrounding. The speed with which they adopt to the new surrounding is really amazing. I just can not forget the sad look that Bujjy gave all of us just a second before it breathed its last.
Sri

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

When I read your post, the first thought that came to my mind was a movie where Vivek begins to hear animal talk. You are such an extra-ordinary person - you delve deeply into the world of humans, spirits and animals. Let me join the fun and add some to the list:

The cockroach at my house tells its fellow roach - "Nivedi's bin is no good. Everytime we get to eat left over curry leaves which her husband throws. I was brown from the time I was born. Look at me now, eating those curry leaves, I have started to turn black. Let's move to her neighbour's bin. They always have some Indian Kurma or aloo gobi there."

There are some Robins, Chickadee's, Cardinals and Blue Jay's that live in the back yard of my apartment. I leave some seeds for them to peck and eat. At times, they chirp loudly and when I peep through, it looks like they are having a heated conversation.

One Chickadee to the other - " What happened to your College admission this year?"

The second one looks a little sad and says - "I failed to get admission into the Aviation college this year. I strongly suspect that eating the nuts in her balcony has made me a hard nut to crack."

The first one adds - "My cholestrol levels have been shooting up. And I have no medical insurance. Look at all the flab in my belly. Can't she leave some low-fat nuts for us? I have to fly an extra mile or two everyday just to lose that fat."

Dear Cheensaar,

I see you did a Doolittle on us! Your forum is like a Pandora box, never know what gem is going to come out next!

I have carefully avoided having pets, saying my hubby and gals are the pets and that should suffice. For one thing, I know the pet will be all mine once we have it, though it may not be me who wished for it in the first place! Knowing me, it would break my heart to leave it behind when going on long vacations like to India. That would be tortuous.

They run an ad here encouraging one to adopt a homeless dog. The dog they show in this ad almost speaks to you with its expression, amazing. I quickly switch the channel as I am afraid to succumb to its appeal...I know, cruel me :(

For some reason, this also brings to my mind the many commercials by Geico, an insurance company here and their cavemen who look like well groomed chimps! Oh, those cavemen are very expressive alright. Watch some of those on YouTube if you feel like it.

Our earth is fascinating alright. I am happy though that I cannot understand the animal's language. We may not be able to live in peace after that !! All the same, I am really glad that I can hear the birds in the early spring inviting the sun and warmth.

L, Kamla

Link to the cavemen!....
YouTube - All Geico Cavemen Commercial

Dear dear Nivedi,

Before signing off, I had to write this reply to your fantastic post here!
Goes without saying that I enjoy Cheeniya sir's ramblings no end. All the more because of such fbs and interactions he arouses.
And this one of your's here is the proof of the pudding! An excellent fb, full of imagination and humor. Looks like reading Cheeniya has rubbed off some of his excellency on you..Loved reading it.

L, Kamla

hi sri,

Good one.. the first thing that came to my mind, was the girl who comes to spend her vacation with the temple elephant and another news that i saw long back. A chennai boy, just caws to the crows and they flock to him..and it was shown as it happened....

I had a friend during my college days,who used to imitate the mynahs, and the mynahs used be fooled and flock to hostel windows...

I have seen the first,second and the original of do little....Eddie murphy's touches a chord maybe because of the daughter who is also gifted and her confusion and acceptance of the the gift.

I am not attached to any pets. my neighbour has rabbits, hens, cocks, dogs, parrots and a aquarium...we make fun that you are going to have a mini zoo in a few months.

I am allergic to cats,dogs so never had any pets though i love animals....and having pets is a great reponsibility. I to all those pet lovers and owners.


If we could understand what animals say,

The fox would tell her kids, for so long, people have been saying we are sly and cunning, now we have to learn all this from man....

the buffalo tell her kids, at least in your life time I wish men stop taking us as examples for thick hide ..there are lot of examples within them

The horse would tell her colt, man have to tie blinders to makes us single track..but he does not need any blinders some have the worst single track minds....

the snakes would say, I am scared of biting men, what if i die from their poison...

Dear Sri,
Your range of subjects is so wide and just unbelievable ! From salvation to sibling rivalry to ghosts to, now, animal talk !

Thank God we cannot understand the animals talk. Otherwise the dogs in Marina will be loudly commenting about me – most unfriendly oldie ! Walks with such a scared face !! Ugh - we have better work than chasing her.

Your wife says that there is a cat always going around your house.
Be careful – you have admitted that a cat
has the annoying habit of becoming privy to some dirty secrets when he is hiding himself under beds and behind sofas..
Otherwise , for some juicy vambu, I may befriend that cat !

But the birds chirping in the morning is so delightful to hear first thing before sunrise and from now, I will imagine they are singing Suprabhatham in their language.
Just the same way, I will say a “goodnight” to the lizard in the bathroom before retiring at night for its “tuk tuk” !
Love,
Chithra.