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Sunday, July 03, 2005

With Charity Towards All....



My cats Azagi (grey and white) and Amul (orange) look like the ones in the pic. I gotta scan my actual cats' pics...:) Aren't they cute?

I love animals whether they're tameable as pets or not. I had three cats back home. The first one was a stray cat that just kept coming back to our house whether we wanted it to or not. It started stealing milk in the afternoons. Our mom appointed my brother and I as Guardians of the Milk. Neither of us relished it much because we couldn't do anything else in peace during afternoons. And the cat was an expert burglar! Once my brother caught it stealing and he chased it down. It tried to get out of the house via a grilled door and it couldn't wriggle out because it had grown so fat! My brother and I just rolled on the floor with laughter and my mom decided that it was too bad to starve a desperate cat. Anyways, it kind of became our house cat. My bro named it "Ramba" because it seemed to have a variation of cross-eyes...(no offense to the actress. Hey! you could take it that the cat was really cute too!:)).

Anyways, Ramba had two offspring- the first one being christened "Azhagi" (by virtue of its prettiness) and the second "Amul" (by virtue of its chubbiness). We bought up both these cats and they were a part of my college life. I used to love the fact that when I came home, Azagi used to run to the door "meowing" as soon as she heard me. Of course, my dad didn't exactly relish our feeding a cat Horlicks milk, cream cakes, chips, murukku, bakkoda et al..He used to look at me and my brother and put a hand to his forehead: "Kashtam!"...:)

Srirangam had an abundance of monkeys because of the groves in the little island. Now that realtors are exterminating groves to build multi-storied apartment complexes, the monkeys get displaced and wander into residential areas in big groups. We used to have monkeys in our backyard all the time. And the poor things used to look for water in buckets to drink and quench their thirst. We always used to leave a bucket full of water for the crows and monkeys. And we had fun feeding monkeys bananas, fruits, biscuits etc... albeit from a safe distance.

Now, there were people in our neighborhood who used to empty water buckets just because monkeys and crows drank out of them. They considered it a "waste of water"! And I have seen many people throw wasted food or fruits in the trash can when they could've given the same food to a starving cow at their gate. They call cats and monkeys "dushtai" (evil ones) and that raising them is earning "pavam". They'd rather sell the cocunuts from their trees for a paltry Rs. 10 rather than give one to a hungry monkey. And these same people would go to Ranganatha temple and search for people to do Anna Daanam. I say "search" because in these days and times, not many people want food; they want hard cash.

Which one is charity? Giving a portion of the food and water we consume to a needy, hungry being or thrusting our charity at other human beings when they really don't need it?? If the former is earning "pavam", I'd gladly go to hell.

30 comments:

ioiio said...

meow.. first comment..

btw is ur bro a kid.. ramba kann ellaam paarthu irukkaaar.. lol :)

expertdabbler said...

"What is charity? Giving a portion of the food and water we consume to a needy, hungry being or thrusting our charity at other human beings when they really don't need it?"

Rombo nyayamana kelvi.


Not only with animals. the treatment extends even to poor backward people, scavengers( thodakoodadhu) etc.

Manidhabimaanam illamal dushtam, madi ellam parkaradhile arthame illai.

if i write more, it will be as if i am against a particular community. But i am referring to all the well established narrow minded communities including the one i belong to by birth.

Anonymous said...

Compassionate towards animals! Soooper !

Oru chinna sandhegam .. Photos-la erukara poonaigalukku Uyir erukara maari therlayey ? Poonaya adichathukku apparam edutha photova?

Anonymous said...

-Vasu

dinesh said...

I agree with your concept. Good thoughts and intents ! Kalakkara subha.

"They call cats and monkeys "dushtai" (evil ones) and that raising them is earning "pavam"."

This is just an example of some logic-less ideologies that were accepted into our day to day lives witout any questions being asked or thoughts about the prudence. These kinds of stupid schools of thought unfortunately gets rooted in our mind so deep, that it's hard to get rid of. I hope that as we go along, more common sense will prevail in our day to day activities.

P B said...

"What is charity? Giving a portion of the food and water we consume to a needy, hungry being or thrusting our charity at other human beings when they really don't need it?"
--The essence of wat ramanuja taught.

Anyways, prabhu karthick & co,not exactly knowing what our "narrow minded" community says is our mistake not the community's.

Maayaa said...

good one subha.. i agree.


Aana poonai mattum ennaku pidikadhu!

expertdabbler said...

muthukumar,

sorry if my views had hurt you. but IMHO,its like saying "we have noble ideas and philosophies to preach but we would not follow consistently. But since we have such noble ideas, we are noble. Following or non-following is an individual issue."

if a substantial number of people do not follow then its a group issue, not an individual issue.

india la yaarum traffic rules follow pannalena, 'indians in general lack road sense' nu dhaan solluvom.

Do we say 'indian has very good road sense, only that most of the individuals do not practice it?'

practising is part of the deal.

anyway, i am not going to comment further on this. and i am clearly responsible for diverting from the topic.

Apologies to subha.

Me said...

mmmm...u made a point at the end....never expected that would come....

i think only problem ppl face is once they give something to the monkeys and cats it would come gain expecting something the next day and after a week may be couple of more will join and i think ppl dont want these animals to come daily expecting food....what say??

P B said...

PK,
you did not hurt my feelings or anything like that. I can see you have nobler thoughts. take it easy buddy.

- PB

The Doodler said...

ioiio,
I always think of my bro as a little kid..:)) But he has grown big now..

PK,
No need to apologize..itz alright buddy. I don't think it is any one community/religion that breeds these views. It is people's interpretations of it. Find something you've got to go out of the way to do and you start looking for excuses not to do it. And the easiest one is religion/belief! None can question it and there is no one interpretation for it...so it goes.

The Doodler said...

Subramoni,
True.God is in a poor man's hunger. Appease it and you find the way to God!

Vasu,
paavam thoongara poonai kuttiyai poi uyir illainu sollaadha...:(

The Doodler said...

Dinesh,
Let's hope things change.

Priya,
Cats pidikkaadhu nu sollittiye..:( Namma Press-Virginia Avenue parking lot-la onnu irukku..theriyuma?

Me,
What you say is true..animals do come back daily if once they get used to it..But do you think it is too much trouble to put out water in the backyard everyday??

Krish said...

Poonaiyai madiyile kattindu sagunam paarkaradaannu solluvaa. For some reason (unfortunately), cats came to be associated with black magic and other exotic stuff :-)

One of the most memorable "poonai kurukke odara" scenes was in the T.R.Ramachandran starrer "aduththa veettu penn" which was as hilarious as it gets :-)

Narayanan Venkitu said...

I love pets too. Of late have decided not to have any pets..thanks to them breaking my hearts...Even a fish's death..makes me cry..! Poor me.!

Anyways, a lot of dogs have breathed their last breath on my lap...you have to ask my mom and she'll tell you that.!

I won't even want to use fly-swatters at home.! For the fear of killing the insects..That's an extreme I know that.

I hate people who hurt stray animals.!

BTW - Ramba....Did she have eyes like you mentioned.? No idea.!
I thought she was beautiful.!!

Funny names - Azhagi / Amul.!!!

expertdabbler said...

subha and muthumar,

thanks for the understanding.
slander was never my intention

Irritating specimen said...

hey i am sorry didnt mean to lift the article out of r blog...just that i didnt know whos it was...and i liked it...i didnt know what name to mention...slight typo..sorry again....

Maayaa said...

subha
naanga veetleya 2 poona valathom..
correct nammalo paala pathu kudichitu poiydum..

adhu seasonkku season kutti podum..3 generation pathom...adhukku sheltor (cardboard box) panni kudupom.. we had protected the kuttis from sun/ rain/ dog..but not from its own mother.. mother would eat them and make the sheltor nasthi..

i recollect all that.. pinnadi stagesa dhaan pidikaama pochu.. adhukku naay romba paravaailla..it had never troubled us..

johnny boy said...

Hi Subha,
Nice introduction to the snap! The cats in the snap "look like" the ones you have... :-)
Very thought provoking post, I agree with you. I am strongly in favor of giving money/food to people, who might not see tommorrow without that help! Rather than donating it to beautify a church/mosque/temple.. Just my view.

Anonymous said...

Enga oru thevar films-ey oduthey !

Naai, Poonai , Kozhi .. poitey erukku list ! Priya Eli valakiriya eppo veetla ?

-Vasu

Anonymous said...

ninga ramnarayanan sonda karangala..:)

The Doodler said...

Venkitu sir,
if you see the opening shots "I love you, love you" number in Ullathai Allitha, you can see Ramba in all her cross-eyed glory! I remember that particularly because it startled the bejesus out of me!!
But anyways, I do believe the actress had some surgery to correct it..:)

Thennavan,
My friend has "adutha veettu penn"..I saw half of it sometime..maybe I will finish watching it..:))

The Doodler said...

Priya,
yeah raising kittens every 3 months is a hassle..but then I love kittens and I kind of enjoyed bring them up, so to speak..:))

Vasu,
Nee free cinema pakkara..inime Press avenue pakkam vandha $12 ticket fee!

The Doodler said...

Anon,
I thought Ramnarayan was the maker of all those Amman films?? Where do animals come into play??

Visithra said...

I'm not sure if this is relevant there but here ppl have the habit of hitting animals and leaving them to die on the roads.

Like your love for animals, I have a friend who has a habit of burying this poor dead animals.

Nice of you to put the water out :)

Anonymous said...

hi subha ....i spent my whole evening reading ur blogs (both tamil and english)...ur tamil blogs were gr8....I certainly agree with all ur ideas .....keep writing abt the temples ...... gr8 work......keep going.

The Doodler said...

Visithra and Vijay,
Thanks!

Maayaa said...

vasu!!!
unmaiyaa naanga kozhi kooda valathom(pakathu veetla valathaanga.. aana enga veetlaye thaan irukkum). eli, mouse ellam labla valakarom:)
piscean females can tame small animals it seems!!!

Anonymous said...

The cutest snap of kittens i ve ever seen. Amazingly cute.....

Senthil

Robbie said...

subha:
I have two dogs at home in salem. Choco and geno. I am not a big cat lover, I love dogs though. I can relate to the feelings of a master towards his/her pets. Choco was so cute when he was a baby. He still thinks that I am his mom! coz I used to feed him milk in a feeding bottle for 3 weeks day and night.It was like a full time job... He cured me of my depression. I still remember those days,pets are indeed very special.