'Daya'_Let us love animals

Daya_Let us love animals

I am not a great animal lover,my friends,nor my husband.We as a family, never hurt animals,when a hungry cat stood on the doorstep and cried in hunger, I would give her some milk.When we saw a cute puppy, I used to give him/her a flying kiss.Thats all.Our love for animals stopped with that,nothing more, nothing less.But we realized that we as a couple, had given birth to a great animal lover who was going to show to us, why and how we should love all living beings . Her love for animals was so infectious that the entire family including our brothers and sisters and their families were influenced by her and today everybody in our family thinks several times before we spray cockroach killer (we do that ,I would be telling a lie, if I say that we don’t eradicate cockroach in the kitchen) but we have become sensitive to any deed that would do harm to any living being.

My husband was transferred to Goa and we were given a sprawling bungalow in the colony.The five bedroomed bungalow had a beautiful majestic garden what with all types of trees ,a spacious portico,and the back verandah looked over the sea.

Maintaining such a huge house absolutely spick and span called for great discipline from all members of the family,particularly my daughters and strict supervision from me,what with a part time maid.One late evening, I was watching TV in the hall, when I heard some noise from the back verandah.First I ignored it as I thought that a mali would have probably come to take away the weeds, he had bundled and kept in a corner of the garden.But when I heard distinct whispers from the verandah , I went to the verandah.My elder daughter was standing guard near the door, to give warning signals to her sibling that mummy was coming.My younger daughter sat on the floor,her long skirt spread over her lega and she had kept a cardboard box on her lap.I peeped into the cardboard box,it had layers and layers of old cloth pieces and papers to make a nice bed and on this bed wa something very red,tiny creature lying.My first reaction was one of undisguised anger.”What is that red thing,Geetha?”I thundered.
M,y daughter,small made,marblelike complexion,round face and rounder eyes looked at me, pathetically and said ,”Amma,this is a baby rat. It fell from the roof, Amma.If we leave it like that ,any other creature would come and swallow it up ,you know?””.
“What?” I exploaded,”Don’t you have senses?Don’t you know that rats can give deadly infectious diseases..Leave it in the garden and come inside”I shouted.
My elder daughter a replica of her sister in looks,came to her sister’s assistance.
“Amma,poor thing Amma”She said.Before she could continue,I yelled,”Who is the poor thing?Your sister,the rat or me who have to see that you people are safe”
My elder one continued,”Amma,Geetha wants to see that the ratling is safe.Give her a week,the rat will gain some strength and we will leave it in a safe place”
I saw that Goethe was feeding the ratling milk from an ink filler.Later on I came to know that she and her sister had the rat in their room, under the cot in the night.With great difficulty I suppressed a smile.Had I smiled,my dear,she would have invited the entire rat khandan for a tea party in her room!
I had to relent,looking at my younger daughter’s eyes filled with tears.
After a few days we found that rat had run away.

This colony where we lived was previously a forest area.The company had spent huge amount of money to construct this colony for their production staff and for senior people so that commuting is not a problem for them.So,the place was full of snakes.When you went for a walk, you could shake hands with a snake or two,if you had the inclination for that.When you entered the huge kitchen in the morning in all probability a snake may be waiting to greet you with a good morning,and it depended on your luck, whether it was a harmless variety of snake or a viper or even a cobra for that matter.Here ,I must tell you that the mention of the word snake used to make me tremble in fear,having been brought up in this city of Chennai, having not seen a real snake in my life, till I reached Goa to make my home there.The company security people were very alert ,they made all efforts to eradicate the snakes,but still it was a menace we had to handle if wanted to live in the colony.The only consoling news was that nobody till then had died of snake bite,and the security people had antiserum for snake bite.
One afternoon,my maid who was putting out the clothes to dry came running to me.”Amma,”she panted,”there is a snake in the garden Amma,a big snake”She won’t pronounce the name,I assumed it was a cobra,I asked herand she said nervously,”Yes,amma.It has hidden somewhere,but it is in our garden only.”I rang up the security and told them about the presence of a cobra in our garden,within five minutes they arrived with lathis.They went round the garden searching for the snake,inch by inch.I,my maid and my daughters were watching from the back verandah,the snake was not to be found.Finally,the security said,”Madam,the snake would have gone away to some other place.Anyway,if you happen to see it,let us know, we will come immediately”So saying they left.
After they left,my younger daughter came to me and said,”Amma if you promise not to tell the security,I will tell you where the snake is”
For one second,my heart stopped.I Has she given refuge to the snake under her cot? .I asked her in trembling voice,”Ok,I promise,tell me,where is the snake?”She took us to the other side of the house and she showed us the snake.It was in a coil, hiding among the stones,kept there for construction of a wall. If we saw keenly, we could see it's glinting eyes,“Geetha,you stupid!Why did you not tell the security staff its hiding place?Do you know,we are running a big risk,with a cobra in our midst/”
Goetha said with a serious countenance,”No,Amma.The snake won’t do us any harm.They are harmless creature, so long as you don’t do them any harm.If you stamp on a snake or give any signal that you are going to beat it up, then only they bite ,just to safeguard themselves,just like any other creature.God has created this beautiful world for all the creatures he has created Amma,you,me and all the living creatures.When we enjoy the bounties of nature,let us atleast allow the other creatures to live in peace.”She summed up her glorious lecture in this fashion.”Amma,if you call the security guard to kill the snake,I will never trust you with any information in future”So saying,she walked away.

It was monsoon time.Those who have lived in Goa will know what is monsoon time in Goa.It used to pour down continuously for a couple of months.Since our house was surrounded by huge trees and lushy bushes of flowering and non flowering shrubs all types of creepy crawlys would enter the house.We had netlons to cover all the windows and kept all the doors closed to prevent the entry of unwanted guests in the form of these worms and what not.One day I saw a bunch of centipedes crawling in the hall,I told the maid to carefully scoop them up in a tin sheet and throw them out.The next hour saw centipedes all over the floor.(My dear,in Tamil we call these insects’maravattais’ I have given the English name as centipede,please do correct me if I am wrong. )However much we tried,it was impossible to stop them from entering the house.When we walked,definitely,some would be crushed under our chappals. .The crushing would produce a ‘phut’ sound,very disturbing.So many of them died in this fashion.One morning I heard Geetha weeping in her room.What happened?Did she have fight with her sister?I could not believe it,Geetha being a fiery girl and the elder one, mostly calm and she doted on her younger sister.I entered the sisters’ room.Geetha was sitting on her bed and weeping,Lakshmi, the elder one had tears in her eyes and was trying to console her sister.”What happened?”I enquired.
“Amma,Geetha is crying,because we are killing so many of these centipedes every day”said Lakshmi.
I was mad with anger.”You stupid girl,are we having fun,killing these creatures?What can we do if millions of them enter our house?Do you want me to put them on the sofa and feed them bread and butter?”
I tried to joke.But to no avail.Geetha, turned to me with her swollen red eyes and started on one of her famous lectures.”Amma,how can you talk like that?Do you know how painful it is to hear them dying?Poor things,they can’t even shout out.They are defenceless,Amma”Here her weeping increased.She continued,”Amma,we are crushing and killing so many innocent creatures.Tell me,can any one of us give life to one creature?Try and breathe life into an ant.Not even the ablest of a scientist or a doctor can bring back to life a dead animal or person.Can we?So how can you kill a living being?Who gave you the right?”She may sound plain stupid to many,but there was sincerety in her words.



Even my maid was in tears listening to Geetha.One of our relatives was staying with us at that time and he simply cried that such a young girl should have so much of kindness and sympathy in her.

Well, we swept the house several times a day and took precautions to see that the creepy crawlies did not enter the house.

My husband and I decided that Geetha should have a pet of her own,so that she would stop worrying about all the living creatures and concentrate her energies on her pet.So, my husband bought for her a pedigreed,beautiful daschund.He was pure black in colour and he came to us, as a one month old puppy.Geetha’s world changed .She named him ‘Joy’.Joy was very clever.He knew which side of the bread was buttered,so even from the first day of his arrival he followed me, wherever I went and preferred to lie down at my feet,much to Geetha’s chagrin.Geetha read all the books available on taking care of dogs,had consultations and conferences with the vetenary doctors and under her care Joy grew up to be a majestic young man.He was one year old, but when he barked the entire neighbourhood would hear him.He had such a thundering voice.Right from the post man to any passerby,people made sure that Joy was not near the gate when they came.

He grew up on hot chappathis,milk and sometimes rice and curd.He was very fussy about his chappathis.They had to be hot,right from the tava,no old stuff for him.He was a pure vegetarian,iyengar boy.Geetha took him for walk in the mornings.When any syrup had to be given,she would very tactfully open his mouth and pour the syrup down.Or she would make her palm like a cup,have the syrup in her palm,Joy would just slurp it down.It was an awesome sight to watch.

We were transferred to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Delhi</st1:City></st1lace> and Joy travelled with us first class by train.We took special permission to have him with us,I was worried that he would keep barking and be a nuisance to other passengers,But to my utter surprise he behaved so well,no noise from him at all.

We settled down at Delhi.Geetha had completed her studies and got a good job.She spent half of her salary on buying colourful sweaters for Joy for the winter months and the other half was spent on street animals,mostly cows.If we had thought that Joy would make her forget all other living beings, we were proved wrong.She would come home every day, carrying dozens of loaves of bread.She would patiently approach the cows,there were many cows wandering in our area and feed them,very lovingly,she was not afraid to go near them.One day, we were in the Greater Kailash M Market,doing some window shopping.Suddenly this daughter mine,stood still.When I looked at her ,she showed her finger in the direction of a pastry shop.There was a cow,which had her nose pressed aginst the glass panes of the window of the shop.She was looking inside intently,it appeared.”Poor thing,Amma.It would be nice to get her something, you know”Her eyes had almost misted.She crossed the road and went inside the shop,bought a cake ,came out and fed it to the cow.Passersby observed this and smiled.An old woman came to her and blessed her for being so kind to an animal.

Geetha was not the only person I knew, who was an animal lover.There were others in more dire circumstances who took care of stray dogs.My maid fed three dogs,may be they had them for their safety since they lived in hutments,but all the same they were kind to their pets.She would go without food,but made sure that their dogs had their share of food.
There was a lady living in our locality in a sprawling house with her old MIL. This lady used to make kanji for the street dogs every day in a huge vessel and with the help of her maid would go on the road,feeding the homeless dogs and sometimes cat also.Geetha and she became friends.Soon Geetha,this lady and few other like minded people started ‘Daya’ an animal welfare organization.I should call it a group with few members.These people, some of them ,retired Government officials,took pains to take care of the orphaned puppies.The lady I referred to,gave the huge verandahs of her house to keep and feed the pups.They organized ‘Adoption Day’once a month and spread word that pups are available free of cost to true animal lovers.These adoption days slowly gained momentum.Geetha and her friends made sure that only real animal lovers took home the pups.One of them would go to the house of the person who wanted to adopt a pup and the pup would be given to him/her only if the members of this group were satisfied with the atmosphere in that house,whether they would really take care of the pup.Before any one adopted the pup,Geetha would give them instructions on how to take of the pup and send the pup with them telling them,that if at any time they found it a problem to take care of the pup,they should return th pup to the organization but should not leave them on the road.She took a promise from each person who adopted a pup.
Well,my husband retired and we had to come back to Chennai.Geetha continued living at Delhi with my elder daughter,fortunately my elder son in law got a job in an MNC and was posted in Delhi.One more year passed.My elder daughter put pressure on her sibling that it was high time she got married and settle down and packed her off to Chennai.
In Chennai also she became involved with animal welfare activities and was associated with an animal welfare organisation for some time.
When Geetha got married and moved to her in law's place at Mumbai ,I was greatly worried.Not about anything else,but I was worried whether this girl’s love for animals would disturb her family life,will her elderly parents in law approve of it?I did not have to worry for a long time.Two weeks after her marriage,Geetha told me during one of her telephonic conversations with me, that she had brought home a lame kitten.”Poor thing Amma,somebody in the building mentioned this lame kitten crying out ,abandoned by its near and dear.So,I brought him home.I have told your son in law to find out if there is an animal care centre, so that ,I will leave him there.Fortunately, her parents in law ,kind hearted people that they were, had no objection to having the lame kitten being tended to at home.My son in law found out a place where sick animals were taken care of and Geetha took the lame kitten there and left him under their care.Every day Geetha would get into the car with her husband, when her husband left for office and would go to the centre where the kitten was being taken care of.She offered to babysit the lame kitten, her explanation being that since the kitten was very small and lame that too,the other bigger cats should not do any harm to this little one.She would open the cage like structure in which the kitten was kept for its safety’s sake and would guide him to mingle with the other ones.I too went with her one day to this centre and my heart nearly burst when I saw the little ,lame kitten trying to run and play, limping all the while.

Geetha conceived and diagnosed as having quadruplets. We were stunned.The lady doctor,a renowned gynecologist , advised her,” My child, this will be a high risk pregnancy if you carry all the four of them. I suggest that we eliminate two and you can give birth to twins safely”
Geetha asked her with a calm face,”Which two shall I give permission to be done away with doctor>?When I drink milk in the morning,when I have my food at regular intervals, it is for my four kids.I keep telling them, we five should always be together.Now that you are suggesting that we kill two of them,tell me, which two of my children should I allow to be eliminated?After that, if I want them, can you breathe in life into any one of them?”The doctor was stunned.She said,”My child,I will help you deliver all the four safely,God being merciful.Don’t worry”She did just that.

Well, she is a busy mother now,I would say proudly that she is a mother of all mothers, taking good care of her children,singing for them,dancing with them and playing with them.It is a tough schedule,but she carries along undaunted.Seeing her in this mode,one of our relatives asked her,”So Geetha,your animal care days seem to be over.Now you have time only for your children”
Geetha said to him smilingly but with conviction,”Whoever said that my animal care days are over?Once my children grow up, I will see to it that they love animals ,all living beings.I will have a pet at home.My children will have the pleasure of taking care of a pet which my parents gave me.”





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My dear sundari,
Thank you for that wonderful FB. Yes,there people like your daughter and mine who love animals.God bless them.
I can't bear to think of natvakkili and snakes and walking in the field surrounded by them.You are great.
love
mithila kannan

 

Dear sindhuja,
Thank you dear.May God bless you.
love
mithila kannan

 

My dear sri,
Thank you for the kind words about Geetha.Her MIL got angry with her for leaving the lame kitten in centre for animals.She said,"Why not we keep it at home?"But better sense prevailed in Geetha,being newly married she needed time to know her in laws and to take care of them.My grand children are doing fine.They are four years old and go to school.It is a delightful sight watching them playing to gether ,getting ready for school and all of them say 'good night' in chorus,before going to bed in the night,I enjoy these moments when I visit them.
love
mithila kannan

 

My dear dear Paulina,
These words of appreciation from you, straight from your heart is want I want.Believe me, yesterday night when I posted this,I told myself,"Paulina will like this".Good hearted friends are gifts from God above,Iam thankful to him.
My grandchildren are fine.They are four years old.Three daughters and a son.They are very cute and when I talk to my daughter on the phone,I invariably hear their voices in the background,like birds chirping away.Their names.Krishna-the boy,Jayanthi,Jayashree and Lakshmi.The go to school.
love
mithila kannan