To my dismay, the bus fare from my stop to the breakstop on way to college is stagnant at 5, inspite of the recent surge in fares.

But the auto fare has increased from 4.5 to 5. And the auto drivers still remember me even after more than 1 month.

Having your fares as 5 bucks is one of the few things that can give a passenger her peace of mind. No moronic conductor clamouring for 50 paisa, no bovine auto driver arguing whether 25 paisa still works or not.

The semester break was mostly spent doing trying-to-be-trendy kind of shopping, running around banks on Mom’s insistence, juggling between mediums of books, net, newspaper and TV, movies, and lots of get-togethers at friend’s place.

My dear friends’ untiring effort to make me watch indecent stuffs remained futile yet again with some divine interventions from the Almighty in the form of ‘disc error’, ‘player not compatible’ etc. What followed was 4 back to back Pie movies, but there also I lived upto my reputation , pretending most of the time of running nose, strong cough and cold and eye irritation and ran away before the 5^th lying about some fictitious birthday party I had to attend.

On the Wednesday morning , just when I was too elated of meeting a friend after 6 months, convincing her to watch Dark Knight over Kismat Konnection and getting tickets for 50, it suddenly might have struck the Fame people that too much happiness is injurious to a young heart and the lady checking my bag suddenly found out a chocolate which even I didn’t know existed, and confiscated it. If that was not enough, a 500ml mineral water bottle cost me 30 bucks. The only solace was that, when the adjacent guys asked for water , we could reply in the affirmative.

Meanwhile my neighbours have acquired yet another puppy. That takes their dog count to 4, all of different breeds. And since I have started believing that I can never possess a dog of my own, and the street pups have betrayed me big time and have shown their liking for the bald uncle over me, I have finally resorted towards my brother, and have started calling him by my dream dog’s name. and it really gives a great sense of accomplishment .

She left before I could find a suitable name for her. For many days after that I could hear her mother wailing, searching for her new born kitten.
Pomy had given birth to a kitten a few days ago. But life was too short for her. Within a week of her birth, she chose to leave her mother and me behind.
At one point of time , I had 7 seven cats at home, running to and fro to every nook of the house. Their agility spread the vibes in our life too. Now I’m left with only one.
Earlier I used to cry. Cried for the whole day , if any of them left me forever. Now I don’t.
Somewhere down the line, the realization has sunk in to me, the more you love your pets, the less they live with you.And that, pets will always leave before you.

My long standing wish of having a puppy has never been fulfilled. If I had ever asked for a puppy as a birthday gift, my mom would dismiss it, citing excuses of them being working parents and hence nobody will be available to look after it  so I took to the stray pups. I would feed them, pamper them, walk with them in the evenings.
And never do they disappoint you. The Bholu, Tommy, Dodo s have returned more love than I have given to them, being my companion in my everyday walk from home to the bus stop, barking away the trespassers into our garden and sitting in front of our house like a watchman daylong !

I have always been immensely possessive of my pets.
I hate when people stop and wait ,when my cats cross the road.
Its like , “ Arre they are my cats, how can they do any harm to you?” 
I really feel jealous when my cats, after having their lunch at my place, go and lie down on the curnish of my neighbours. “you are having food at my place and relishing somewhere else? Huh “
I hate my street dogs when they run after somebody , who gives them biscuits. “ohh, I give you food na, isn’t that enough?”

Among the other pets I had was fish ! But somehow I failed in that attempt. Though I did n’t have a formal aquarium , I tried to keep the fishes in a bowl after collecting them from a friend’s aquarium. Either the water did not suit them or the food, they did not survive for more than 2 days. After two falied attempts , I did not wish to bother those tiny creatures anymore. Also as people say, goldfish cannot survive without its pair.

Pet loving was extended among our friends too. A friend of mine arranged a party when her rabbit gave birth ! so did another when the number of fishes in his aquarium had crossed 30 ! there were also competition among some friends as to whose dog can run more fast or whose cat is more fluffy !i had named a cat Duggu to tease a friend of mine who is an ardent fan of Hrithik Roshan.

The void created by their death is something which many can’t cope up with.
A friend of mine stopped going to the terrace for years after the death of her rabbit which had its den at one corner there.After the death of their parrot,our neighbours used to feel sad every night , as the parrot used to chirp out ‘good night’ to them .We stopped going to a friend’s house after their dog died. Somehow , we found it hard to get over the fact that there will be no ‘Liza’ running towards us, wagging her tail, running to and fro in joy of seeing us, picking up the ball we threw towards her….

Did I mention about the broken-legged crow which used to visit me every morning at 8:30 a.m sharp?
The poor bird had broken her legs somehow and maybe was unable to move too much. So I found her every morning, sitting on our window pane. And after a few days , I was also familiar with her typical call and thus used to rush towards the window to give her food.
May be her limbs are fine now, that she does n’t visit me anymore !

trivia !- unlike dogs, cats wag their tails when they are angry.

how about adopting a violet monkey?





this stray Puppy surely needs me!






Green Goblin?