Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Last 2 Years


I am fine and things are swell.  I am sitting in a small town in South India and watching the rain as I write this.  Yes I am in India!  It’s been almost 2 years. So many things have happened and my mind has just been exploding. That’s what India does. It’s an assault on your senses.  Food, smells, noises, traffic, colours, people, stray dogs.  Yes stray dogs.  I hardly saw any in Singapore - and never ever in the sanitized part of the city. Here, in India, the roadies (that’s what I like to call them) are everywhere. On the road, near shops, restaurants, temples, inside apartment complexes. Everywhere.  And the laws for roadies are pretty good –better than those in Singapore.  I had to lookup Indian Animal laws for an issue that the community was facing in our apartment complex in Bangalore so I am pretty well informed about my rights. I’ll tell you about it soon. Bangalore, the cosmopolitan city, that’s where I landed.  I wonder what makes it cosmo – the North Indians?

I landed in Bangalore in a dark, dingy box as part of the airplane cargo! NOT FUN. I was furious when I got out. I knew something was up at the airport checkin counter itself when She was acting cool. Way too cool. And He kept asking has the crew being informed that there is a dog on board. He was a bit anxious.  I knew something was up right then. Actually I should have guessed it earlier. The week before I suddenly started putting on a bit of weight and She kept weighing me every single day and looking at the machine in despair as the needle kept moving. Oh such a cheapo! She was thinking of the extra luggage weight that I was going to be!  That trip was NOT FUN.   And worse was to come. We landed in our apartment and it was full of ticks. You heard it right. The entire house! They were crawling on the walls. I kid you not. It was a nightmare. I’ll write about it later.  Oh! The poor thing that stayed there before us!  We somehow made through the night and the very next day went to my cousin Sufi’s place for respite. We went in an auto rickshaw with loud music and traffic sounds everywhere and my tail hanging precariously outside, practically scraping the road!  My mind was exploding.

Now cousin Sufi has to be a separate post.  It took almost a year for us to be friends. Ok that’s a stretch – It took us a year to just become cordial thanks to all the efforts that I made.  He is a spoilt insecure brat and would bark at anyone who petted me! And so much restless energy.  He jumps from one couch to another, from the floor to the bed, from the bed to the chair and so on. No wonder they call him ‘The Flying Sufi’. Well we are kinda ok with each other now and meet often. That’s the thing with family you just can’t escape them.  Sigh. 

I also met a lot of lovely people and dogs in my neighbourhood. My neighbours just adored me and our doors were usually open so I could run from one house to another. And there was so much food in that house.  It all stopped when She realized that the next door mom was giving me chocolate despite being made aware of the list of forbidden items!  They were put on probation for a while and then it was back to fun times sans chocolate.  It was like a never ending party and I got so many cards and toys from all the lovely folks around us that it was overwhelming.  I even had a separate birthday party! 

And when it got really cold in Bangalore and my nose turned brown, we went on a beach vacation. Yes. My nose turned brown. Brrrown. Even I was confused. I saw myself in the mirror and it was completely brown! I had to look at my old photos to confirm that it was indeed black at one point.  So off we went to the sea side. I’m not much for the waters but it was fun and I could roam off leash everywhere in the resort.  And they serve you chai and ‘bhajjis’ on the beach!

We have a car here and so no more pleading with cab drivers. Yay! We can travel easily but I had no idea what was in store. We went to Kerala, Chennai, Pondicherry and then did a west coast trip from Kerala to Karnataka to Goa to Maharashtra! I tell you my mind is still exploding with all that is happening.  I went paddle boating in Chikmangalur, slept in a trailer park in drunken Goa, planted trees in a forest for 10 days in Pondicherry, gazed at the blue waters of the Arabian Sea from the steepest cliff I’ve ever seen  and ……. I can’t think anymore. My mind just stopped.   

Oh. A pig just passed by I’ve got to go bark at it. 

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