My Last Sunday Diary

6/5/2012    12:12 pm   Sunday

Last night I slept in my friend Gonor’s house. I was giving him a company as he is still braving his injured ankle. It was a beautiful night. The full noon night. As I was heading to his house, the moon approached, kissing the mountain to the south east. The luminous light slowly spread lighting the landscape all over. The kerosene lamp flickered in the kitchen of the Tshongpa as they had their dinner. The Tshongpa was happy and drunk. The sky was clear with some stars twinkling. In the place like this where the rain is heavy especially during the late spring and the summer, the moon washed night is too stunning to let pass. No winds too. Everything was at rest. The farmers were at rest after the day’s work at the river side in a scorching sun. The prayer flags motion less and so were the trees.

In the midst of all the freedom the moon lit night offered, we had a nice night with peaceful sleep. For dinner we had fiddle heads as the curry. Yesterday afternoon, when I went out to fetch some manures and stakes for my garden, I collected the fiddle heads too. These days when vegetables are in scanty, anything from the nature is best delicacy indeed. The tongpa and a movie were added joy the beautiful night blessed us.

This morning when I came back to my house, a couple of bulbuls on the meadow and a little squirrel on the tree in front of my friends house greeted me. “Tortola (squirrel) on the tree!” I blurted out to Gonor. He was fetching  water in a jug for the offering. “Yes it always comes to nibble on the fruits on that tree.” He responded. “Beautiful indeed!” I said and made my way to the school.

The sun was out. The grasses were glistening. A pair of spotted dove took a great flight from the school tap when I neared them. Before that on the orange tree near the Agriculture Extension Office, I caught an intimate glimpse of a lone spotted dove which took a fantastic flight when I passed under the tree. The sparrows were in full chirp.

I entered my room, washed my face and did my morning offerings and prayers. I dedicated my today’s offerings, prayers and good deeds to the old cat which I found dead yesterday afternoon. I don’t know when it breathed its last. I found it missing since a couple of days ago. The cat spent most of her time with me this year. She slept on my bed with my cat Kaka. She was Kaka’s mother. Indeed longest living cat in Kagtong she had been. This year, due to old age she could not keep the beauty of her being. She became feeble to the extent of falling down when she coughed. I treated her well and so did the neighbors. She had been a timely reminder to me that beauty and youthfulness cannot live forever. Further she had been an  appropriate personification of our phase of life as old people. In the first place, the people could no longer pet her as she lost her charm of being cute. Whenever I stroked her, I could feel the skeleton. Worse still, her own blood, my cat Kaka refused to sleep with her and lick her when I put them together at the side of my bed when I sleep. All these personified me how we would become worthless in the society and would be abandoned by our loved ones, let alone by the others.

In the great heat, her dead body was covered with a swarm of flies. It was rotting. A little dog was taking a bite. I chased the dog. The dog ran away with a limb in its mouth. Then I tied its limb with a thread and dragged it down towards the river side and buried it in the bushes. Her dead body might have benefitted some insects especially those flies which followed me as I was dragging the body. In my mind, I wished a peaceful journey to her after her death.

She had lived a life.

Mothered countless kittens

Became a pet to somebody

Fulfilled her obligations

Finally disowned by all and

Ended up into an eternal rest.

Now I have mourned over five cats that died in my house and its surrounding. Last year, it had been a heart bleeding experience when I had to throw away the dead bodies of the three kittens of my cat Kaka consecutively. Then in 2010 summer I had to throw away a little kitten I found dead on my porch. Yesterday was that old cat’s turn.

Sometimes I feel happy and great that all the beings come to my rescue when they discovered that they were burden to others. Yes I treat all well to the best of my hearts capacity. Now I have a dog filled with scabies which is not liked by all in this vicinity. So long as I’m alive and well, I hope I can do my best to help others in my own humble ways.

Now forget about the cat’s tale. Few minutes back, some children requested me to screen them a movie. I couldn’t as I was browsing some internal new on bbcnews.com. When I got out some minutes later, I couldn’t find them. I was surprised to spot me sketched with a chalk on a trunk of the orange tree near my hut. It might be sketched by the children for not letting them the opportunity to watch a movie. I have seen them strolling under that tree. I laughed silently.

As of now the sky is clear with bright sun on. It’s really hot. The sweats come out even in the room doing nothing. The gentle wind blowing is soothing to some extent. It’s warm wind caressing us because of sun. “The two days of sun has made the land dry.’ Remarked the wife of Mr Prakash.

Except last night, for the week, Kagtong experienced sunny day and rainy day.