Sika

It was the summer of 1990 when I had nothing to do but to wait for the results of the various exams that I had appeared for. After finishing my college it was more than three years by then when I was in desperate need to qualify in at least one competitive exam. As I was already 26 by then an age limit for jobs was 28 years.

My mom was a school teacher and papa was a govt officer. But compared to their status we were living in a much-downgraded place. Even though it was a bungalow, it was in a very wretched condition. It was a thatched house with straw used as a roof covering and bamboo as the skeleton of the roof. We had only two rooms in a row on one side, one tiny kitchen, and a utility room in a row on the other which was separated by a big open courtyard. The other two sides were covered with big walls.

Every day my mom used to cook food before going to school. She was a great cook. Her cooking skills had a number of admirer including me and my papa. But the greatest admirer that can possible was not any human but a cat. A feline with a sharp nose that can smell any activity in the kitchen from a distance. The cat was very demanding. Sometimes I felt as if the cat had a secret mission to piss off my mom. When my mom used to be in real hurry to go to school, this cat had different plans to implement on mom. She would pose a challenge like ‘ hide the stuff if you can’ for mom.

It was a love-hate game my mom play every day with this cat. Mom had studied the cat’s every ugly intention so well and so beautifully that the cat in spite of her smelling skills hardly get successful in hunting down the cooking pots at any point of time.

After we finish our food mom would serve her in separate plate outside the house as she was a stray cat.

Somehow I relate myself, to the cat very much. The cat, like me every day attempted with tooth and nail to grab some thing or other from Mom’s kitchen. But every time like me she too got nothing but scratches, injuries and several unsuccessful attempts. Her efforts always fall short in front of her fate like me. She had to settle for things that had been offered to her, not the things that she desired to get.

Mom was very fond of fish. But with both the parents working, it was not always feasible to go to market and procure fresh fish. One day my papa got an idea. He brought about a kilo of dried shrimps, thinking that it would satiate to some extent the fish-eating pangs of our family, which included the cat.

But that idea became a nightmare for mom. Mom couldn’t find a place to keep it as a resident cat was always there, hovering around.

So mom thought of an idea. She was very good at that.

Those days we used to keep all the valuable foodstuffs which can last for days together like gur (molasses ), ghee (Clarified butter), and foodstuffs like milk , leftover food on a “Sika”. “Sika” was like a hanging potholder made by jute ropes or coir ropes tied in such a way that can hold a pot . Generally, it was tied to the bamboo skeleton, of the thatched roof, of our house. Mom used to apply her mathematical skills to judge the height of a “Sika” that was supposed to be completely unreachable to the cat. That time Fridge and gas cooktops were just entering to the Indian market. So hardly anybody was using it. So “Sika” was one of the most widely used most economical kitchen accessories at that time.

We had a few of them.

For non-veg items, mom had a separate “Sika”, in one of the darkest corners of her tiny thatched kitchen. She thought that would be best place to put these dried shrimps which would be inaccessible to this cat too. So she put all the dried shrimps in a dried palm leaf basket and hung it in the “Sika”.

It was her assumption. She assumed on a lot of things.

Like after my degree looking at my calibre and marks I will fetch one of the most coveted jobs with utmost ease… She never checks reality. For her, destiny is much powerful than anything else in this world. And when destiny favours, the fruit of success will shower from heaven, like the torrential rain drenches the earth.

Mom used to prepare food in a mud kiln with wood fire. It was a ritual that after cooking, mom wouldn’t extinguish the fire completely she would let a few burning charcoals to shimmer for few more hours. I couldn’t understand why she used to do that. Because of that shimmering fire, this place was hot favourite with our resident stray cat.

She would sleep, yawn, stretch … look idly here and there.

To prepare for the competitive exams I used to sit for hours beside a big window at my study room. From my studies I could see the cat and the kiln as it was just opposite to each other separated by a wide courtyard.

After mom and dad left for office it was the cat and me left at home. I used to take care of the house which included the job to keep an eye on that cat and prevent it from spoiling the leftover and unprepared food items.

Fate played mischief with our darling cat… by adding this new zing thing “the shrimp Basket”…

The usual life of the cat disrupted in a very odd way.

She was not knowing what she is going to hit in the coming days when mom assigned that “sika” to the dried Shrimp basket.

It was the Shrimp basket that provided the cat a full time aim .

Since the cat was unaware of the development, as usual, she slept near the usual place after mom left for school.

The sharp smell of dried shrimp reached her nostrils like a sweet sensation, that she couldn't ignore. She couldn’t avoid the temptation to grab a few from the basket by all possible means. The heady smell got stuck in her head. She couldn’t sleep. The lazy days were as if vanished forever. She made up her mind it had to be then or never.

To get that cherished fruit, it felt as if she had chalked out a perfect plan addressing the need to act and act profoundly…

And to get there what she estimated was a few calculated steps and one sure-shot jump and that debarred heaven would be hers…

First day she made a nasal survey lifting her head slightly upwards putting her nose like a sonar, walked past the warmth of the kiln to the cold corner. Then made one aerial survey by looking at the wall and then towards the floor, then towards me and then she pulled her down a bit and she leapt towards the “Sika” like a projectile …but got misfired and smashed on the wall opposite to the “Sika”.

Few stars circled around her eyes. She stayed on the ground fallen flat for few seconds and gather herself to jump again.

I looked down to my notebook and thought my job is like that “Sika” full of Dried fish, but had I developed that temptation to have it by hook or crook like that cat …

Few days passed . Mom took out a few shrimps and prepared delicious curries out of it. Cat was also fed with the delicacy. But she wanted it all. It posted “Shrimp Sika” it pretended as if that cat had got a job. She forgot sleeping near the warm kiln. She forgot what her life used to be. Day in day out her eyes stayed glued to that “Sika”.

Every day she made at least five jumps to get to that “Sika”. But couldn’t get success. But what I noticed that each time her jumping angle got sharpened and more professional like.

The cat and me and the hot summer out there… Our struggle pretended as if never-ending process.

It was one those sweaty summer afternoon. , when I was, in full concentration solving the mathematics part of a mock test,

I heard, “Postman…”

For a second my heart sank in. A thousand thoughts crisscrossed my head in that very second.

“Will it be the day I am dreaming of !” I whispered in despair.

Folded my hands in the air towards that invisible god. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Postman handed over the letter.

It a hurry I opened the letter and went blank for a few seconds.

And suddenly I heard a huge crash.

“What is this sound !” I screamed.

It felt as if the utensil basket fell down from a height. I ran towards the kitchen. The kitchen had one more typical feature to it. . The door was about 5 ft. Height and I was 5.9. Every time I enter there, I bow down a bit to avoid the door frame to bang on my head. It was mandatory to remember that door had of lower height or else possibility of a bang on the head was inevitable.

But that day was different.

The anxiety to open the letter made me forget. Before I could realise I hit the door frame.

“Ouch” I screamed in pain.

Holding my head in one hand I entered the kitchen to see what really happened there.

The view that came in front of me was so fulfilling I forgot my pain for a while.

Random Utensils were rolling on the kitchen floor all over. And the “dried shrimp leaf basket” was torn apart and the cat was sitting below the “Sika” on a heap of shrimps, as a glorious king of great galore!

I laughed out loudly, frightening the cat for a moment. But I had no desire to drive her out and she was not in a mood to run either.

“ Three years of struggle, in spite of having a good percentage, I couldn’t qualify any exam. Like those dried fish basket on the “Sika”. The job was always a distant dream for me so far. How many times I must have injured my head and scattering my desires like these utensils. Every fall of me used to create situations in my household where mom sinks into a dark world of nothingness and papa into a world of vulnerability, anger, frustration. Like those utensils how many times I must have gathered back all my scattered broken dreams !”

I became emotional …

“For me will it ever happen! Like that cat Shall I get through in my life’s battle and pave my path towards my cherished dream, any-day !” I thought.

Tears rolled down.

I looked at that cat with the utmost fulfilment.

“What an attempt this little creature made !” I thought.

I let the cat enjoy the fruit of success. And get back to my letter with great anticipation.

“Congratulations…! You have successfully passed the test. The Joining letter will be dispatched shortly.”

It was the joining letter I was waiting for so long. Years of handwork paid off.

When the sense of desire, to achieve something overpowers all other senses, that is the time when destiny steps in … I am not saying this my little cat taught me that day…