Soooo … some concern over the fact that the Blog was down today ! Yes true  .. because they are upgrading the facility and trying to make it a more user friendly device .. There was a bit of panic, but I do hope that all has now been resolved and that all the Ef are able to access it and find it to their satisfaction.

I see the cat lovers have almost immediately and with some suddenness begun to look at me with greater affection and regard. This is amusing and responsible both. Amusing because my love for the cats is a deliberate necessity than true affection. They take care of the rats and that is a huge positive for me. For months on end have I spent sleepless nights because the mice and mouse and the rat brigade had decided to party each night on my ceiling and at times within the sheets of my bed. Sincerely ! On a rather lazy evening they even landed up by the furniture and cushions in the hall ! I had spent many nights chasing them around with a broom until exhaustion overtook my violent adventure and slumbered me down. The masterly use of rat traps was a complete failure. They have discovered the means of escaping from them -and worse, with the cheese ! I tried all possible remedies for this and failed, until finally it struck me that ‘loha loha ko kat ta hai’ and decided to encourage the stray cats from taking their stroll in the garden and occasionally to be fed with great sympathy by the staff of the house. In between I even tried that ingenious paste that when placed on a piece of paper that houses the treasured cheese, encourages the mice to have a go at it and get stuck in the paste before they reach the bait !! A huge sense of victory was experienced by me, when I met up with ‘stuck’ rat in the paste – a scenario I had long wished would happen some day !

The stuck rat was alive, but with its paws firmly stuck to the paper and the paste, gave me an opportunity to have an outburst with it as it struggled to get its feet away and off the paper. I spent a good half hour conversing with monsieur Rat, telling him in a one way conversation sort of way, the anguish it had caused me for this rather large period of time chasing him about the house. I think he was least interested in my vocabulary, which I must confess was a bit tempered and x-rated and proceeded to show me his prowess in trying to escape even when he was in such dire circumstances. Of course he failed, but the attempt was honest and worthy of mention … he tried to bite its way out by attempting to eat and chew up the paper, little realizing that every portion of his body that touched ‘paper treated paste’ would have even grave consequences on the rest of his body !!

But … the story of the rat that crawled our from a large gutter or drainage system in an earlier home of mine when I stayed in a rented place, is even more alarming ! On returning from my work late one evening I discovered a rat the size of a cat, over grown and over fed, taking very measured steps up the staircase in the house like he owned it ! On making a few ‘shooo’ sounds to drive it away, it, moving in any case at .005 feet per hour, stopped for a moment and slowly but very determinedly turned its head around to give one of the most evil glares that I may have ever received. It was almost human in its demeanor and this prompted me to leave it alone rather than be obsessed by its presence in the most personal portions of the house !!

The other sized rats that came close in presence to this fellow were the ones on the sea front of Marine Drive among the quadrupeds, or whatever they are called, to prevent erosion ! Those experiences were at a time when there was no roof over my head and I had spent the nights on a bench the entire night, by the pavement !

Its been a while since then … quite a while …

My love and deep affection to all .. cats rats and all ..

Amitabh Bachchan