The Catfather

 

I created this at http://fontmeme.com/godfather-font/

       

       You might not be altogether mistaken for expecting a blog-post named The Godfather from me, but The Catfather. Really? Don Vito Corleone himself was a cat lover as seen in the first scene of Francis Ford Coppola's magnum opus The Godfather. I am no different. I have liked felines from childhood and even have a photograph of a 3 year old me holding a white cat, giving it a fashion makeover using a lipstick! But that was 22 years ago and in my grandparents' place. Mom never permitted me to keep a pet though we lived in a nice bungalow in Bangalore with a small garden, trees, terraces and open spaces. But it all changed on 23rd June 2012 when my buddy Ashwin Kumble informed me that our mutual friend Bharath Hebbar, was giving away kittens for adoption. 

        I was in a dilemna. I knew that Mom would never approve of this. I also knew I had to leave for Dallas in 50 days to join the full-time MBA program at The University of Texas at Dallas. Yet, overpowered by my intense longing for a pet, I instinctively gave two kittens a warm home, without anyone's approval; just as Santino Corleone in his boyhood had brought home a homeless Tom Hagen from the streets of Hell's Kitchen, New York City and made him family, without worrying about the great Don's wrath.

Anish, age 3

         When I went over to Bharath's place to pick up the kittens, the first thing I noticed was the name of his house being Jagad-dhaatri. In Sanskrit, the oldest language in the world, it meant- Protector of the World. Indeed. In his 2-storied sanctuary I saw 9 cats spanning across 3 generations living in harmony not only with one another but also with Bharath and his younger twin brothers, who were as cute as the cats themselves! I saw a granny-cat, a mother-cat, and 7 kittens who were two months old; old enough to survive on their own, and young enough to be gleefully playful! Was it not exactly two months ago that I had heard from the University about my admit? Was that just a coincidence? 

  

        I had wanted kittens for quite sometime and I saw this as a manifestation of my belief that whenever we really want something, the whole Universe conspires to make it happen. This belief is echoed in Paulo Coelho's books and The Secret. I decided to adopt 2 of them as they would have each other for company. This could have been done in 7C2 ways, but rather than me selecting them, I let them select me. I opened a small basket, kept a distance and watched attentively. Not all of them behaved the same way. Some were too shy to venture outside and some were too afraid of me. But two of them were purr-fect. Their curiousity and spirit of adventure had me smitten. As both of them jumped inside the basket causing the lid to fall down, a big smile silently crossed my face :-) 

          Carrying the heavy basket, I walked up to my door expecting a lot of resistance. But Mom, who is as formidable as the Don himself, put me in shock as she permitted them in without saying a word and fed them a bowl of warm milk and boiled rice, the taste of which they would never forget. I was so overjoyed at this miracle that I started debating with my brother whether to name them "Katrina-Kareena" or "Changu-Mangu". Somehow the names Softy and Browny stuck! I put their basket in our patio and built a makeshift wooden shed for them. After covering them with a blanket, I closed the patio door and stood by the window, looking at them and wondering what they were going through. They did not know where their mother was. They were in a whole new world where their very existence was in peril. They were staring at uncertainty.

         But I must say I did not see one bit of fear or shock in their bright, shimmering eyes. Softy and Browny had this amazing attitude towards life - Fearlessness. Swami Vivekananda, a firebrand monk from India once said that if there was one word that you would find coming out from The Upanishads like a bomb, bursting like a bombshell upon masses, it was the word Fearlessness. Also known as Zen in some circles. I couldn't help seeing their life in contrast with mine. Their situation was not unlike mine. I was in that point of time where I knew I was going to a premier University on the other side of the globe, in a fabulous place, a land of Dreams, a place where a person would actually be treated like a human being. 

Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas

          This was after 4 years of struggle with the flawed CAT based MBA procedures in India and getting rejected by mediocre institutions such as Tap-Me, Eye-am-eye, Yes-Eye-be-am and Eye-am-Tea despite having a desirable profile, diverse background and high test scores; without even evaluating me in an interview. To this day I do not know what they were thinking. My patience and peace of mind were running out, and it gave me great satisfaction when I got my admit with scholarship from the Jindal School of Management UTD, the Only school I had applied to in the US. I was glad that they saw what the other schools couldn't. Sometimes Brain-drain is better than a Brain in the drain- a wise man once said. Rightly called The New World, America was thousands of miles away from home, family; making no promises about the direction my life would take. 

These were among my deepest thoughts in the last few days in India.

courtesy: Dr. Sohan Raghavendra aka Tsadbodt Dot Eek

        On the other hand, Softy and Browny were very enlightened beings. Uncertainty did not bother them. They lived every moment in the present, making the most of it by being delightfully playful and curious, entertaining anyone who happened to look. They seemed to know that as long as they did what they always do best (i.e. be playful), and gratified a Power greater than them, that entity (i.e. I) would provide for all their needs and take care of them. They did not have to worry about anything beyond their control. They could do things that either please that Power or anger that Power. Doesn't this boil down to the ideas of Dharma and Karma? Loosely translated, Dharma meant righteousness and doing one's duty, keeping everything aside. The law of Karma is essentially about the cause and effect our actions, spanning across lives, and how our past or present actions will account for our future lives, even if done when no one is watching! "As you sow, shall you reap." These ideas reverberate in the modern breakthrough book - Many Lives, Many Masters. 

       I was amazed by this phenomenon. When animals intrinsically observed this, was it so difficult for mankind to understand this analogy? It baffled me when I saw mankind exploit such evolved beings in the name of food, when better options were available... 

       With Softy and Browny I saw a side of me evolve; a side that I thought did not exist. I learnt to feed them Cat-food and milk at correct times and in the right quantities. I learnt to clean up after them when they did their job (after getting blasting from Mom!), and never complain or get angry! I learnt to bathe them without making them restless, and also figured out how to deal with them when they meowed and clawed my door at midnight wanting to sleep on my bed. 

Without realizing it, I became The Catfather.

        The 50 days passed by sooner than I thought. It was time to catch the flight to Dallas. I played with Softy. Purring softly, poor Softy did not have a clue that it was the last time I would be playing with it for sometime. It had no idea that I was going far away from it. As I looked into Softy's eyes, dark clouds were forming inside me. A thunderstorm was brewing rapidly and about to precipitate from my Eyes...

last few moments..

        Love is a powerful emotion. Each time I have experienced it, words have trickled down from somewhere deep in my heart, seeped into the pages of my diary and sprung forth as a blog post here... Nowadays, when I see infants, I relate to them like how I did with kittens. They are very alike. Whenever I video chat with my family, I always ask for Softy to be brought over. Last week I heard from them that Softy and Browny left, and never returned. I do not know what happened to them. 

Surprisingly, I am not heart-broken. Some bonds are so deep that they are carried over beyond a lifetime. Who knows if we'll be re-incarnated as family in the next life! No love is ever lost... 

 "Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

-Anatole France

"Jeevan ke safar me raahi..

milte hey bichhad jaaneko

Aur de jaate hey Yaade

tanhaai me tadpaane ko.."

- a Kishore Kumar song

Head over Heels..

6th June, 2009

         It was a bright Saturday evening open to a lot of possibilities for making merry, and I was attending BYJU's CAT workshop at Jyothi Nivas College, Koramangala. This workshop was so much more informative and useful than the T.I.E.M. classes I had attended last year. All  T.I.E.M. did was make false claims of having sent more number of students to IIMs than any other institute. Falling for their advertising, I had joined them last year. It didn't take me long to realize that my 20K had gone down the drain.

        After CAT '08, I was all set to start my prep for this time- the elusive final attempt. A do or die one. It was then that I heard about Byju's classes. Byju Raveendran was a mechanical engineer from IIT and a serial CAT topper, who had this habit of scoring a 100 percentile and rejecting calls from IIMs every year! He was a math genius and an expert in mentally solving even those math problems that mere mortals feared to solve even with a calculator. 1 out of 8 students in his class made it to an IIM! He was a Keralite bloke, with a straight serious face, well built physique and of good height. Though he taught 1200 students in a class at a time, his classes were very well structured and effective. At the end of every class, he along with his knowledgeable aides would wait outside the hall to impart clarity and helped to cement all the concepts and tactics that students needed assistance in. Needless to say, his support staff knew almost as much about the subjects as he did, and were fully qualified.

That was why My confidence level went up after each class.

        June 6th was a "Numbers-1" reschedule, dealing with the Remainder theorem, divisibility rules, Euler's number, Chinese remainder theorem and so on. It was a heavy-on-concepts session and incidentally I had a few concepts to clarify. I directed my queries to one of his support staff, a young lady, who looked more like a Bollywood actress, than a member of the teaching profession! She did resemble Perizaad Zorabian :-) It was spoken among the students in hushed tones that she was an IIM-A topper, who gave up her lucrative placement to teach here. That made me wonder how much more Byju had offered her to bring her here.

        She borrowed a pen from a guy standing nearby, and effortlessly solved the remainder of (11/77)^97 on my book. Then, she had one look at me, and just like one of those hot professors in the commercials who smiled weirdly and scribbled cardiograms on the blackboard when the cool dude entered the class, this lady went head over heals, and handed over the pen to me, profusely thanking me; while I tried to say that the pen actually belonged to the other guy standing there :-) For a few seconds, she froze, thanked me again, (??) and handed over the pen, to me !!! Only when I said it the second time did she understand what she was doing!

Courtesy: sheknows.com

    

        She looked down, gave me a sheepish smile and handed over the pen to the other guy, who stood there witnessing this event with his mouth wide open! Maybe, she was hit by The Thunderbolt. In The Godfather, "being hit with the thunderbolt" was a Sicilian expression referring to a man being spellbound and stupefied at the sight of a beautiful woman. 

           She was short, petite and delicate, with a sharp featured face not unlike Perizaad's; with beautiful kohl laced eyes, wearing some designer Kurti, and having a flowing hairdo like Perizaad's, only better :-)

The break ended and I went back to the class.

           Later, at the end of the session, I was standing at the hall entrance waiting for Byju when she herself came to me and asked me what I wanted. I hadn't expected this. I blabbered something about some topic that Byju had forgotten to cover that day, about which I wanted to remind him. She told me it had been covered in some other class and was about to give me more details when, out of nowhere, Byju swooped in with a mean and impatient look on his otherwise calm face. Instead of debating about it, he quickly summarized that topic for me then and there, with a look on his face that unmistakably conveyed the message- "Are you done now??"

          My eyes were wide open, witnessing this bizarre spectacle. I answered in affirmative, and asked her some concluding questions and left the place, shell-shocked. As I walked outside to the parking lot, all the variables in the equation were showing themselves, the haze around everything was clearing up and soon the picture became clear. One thought rang in my head over and over - - - - - -

"SHE MUST HAVE BEEN  BYJU'S  GIRL !!!!"

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(PS: Byju's classes were a great blessing. I learnt almost everything that he had to teach there, and IF the paper based CAT had continued, I would have most likely landed in a premier-management-institute in India. But CAT 09 was the beginning of the decay of the CAT system of MBA entrance exams. The exam was made online, and had several flaws. The quality of questions and the evaluation and "Normalization" of answers was abysmal and continues to worsen every year. 

A few years later, someone told me that they both were indeed a couple, and that they got married recently. My intuition was not wrong!

Meanwhile, I jumped into the GMAT boat, and used the knowledge gained @ Byju's to secure admission  in a top ranked B-School in USA.)