THE CAT, one of the shrewdest and smartest of all the mammals, is an inborn struggler, pitted against all the odds of the wild woeful world. The struggler, however, is a progressive developer and leaves no stone unturned to make its presence felt and create its own range within which it lives and acts. Decorated sometime with discoloured effects and at other times with motleys and dots, the cat is a measured manifesto of beauty at its best. Many a poet of yesteryears have gratified and elevated the cat as a symbol of beauty and intelligence. The cat is an inborn warrior and a soldier of classical magnificence infused with modern armoury of modern development.

Fish is the staple of most of the cats but some are hardcore vegetarian and feasts on vegetables and fruits alike. As milk and milk food is another of the most sought after items that a cat craves for, the cost of living of a cat is pretty expensive and thus, it calls for hard work and dedication. The family of a cat is again divided into hard workers and passive fighters. The passive fighters are innovators and they figure out policies and measures for new avenues and prospects.

But disputes cropping out of certain issues are like short circuits and the resultant disintegration in cats spreads like wild fire, engulfing everything that comes under it. The issues of disagreement range from distribution and division of diary farms, selection and distribution of kitchens and human habitats that are to be ventured into for food collection and other related matters. On surfacing of any of such disagreements and disputes, the fights that follow are fearsome and take a toll on the entire community and pose a threat on the very existence of cat family. The riots and ravages of such violent outbreaks are usually followed by laments and isolation and in such isolation are celebrated the grief of the spilt milk that nobody could drink. And the fish, the kitchens; they have lost it all. The places that they called their very own sometime back are no more in their hand. The very thought of being losers drives forth a sense of gloom in them and they lay wondering for a chance to win back whatever they have lost. The recuperation process is hard and tiring. The leader moves around with hopes of finding out like-minded fighters to win back the lost domain and territory. In between, the process of mating and enumerating takes place in its usual pace and the rituals and the rights over the rites induce in them a sense of unity in diversity. Who are those perpetrators who rode on the sensitive situations emanated out of the selfish fight of the rioting cats? The cheese, the fish, the butter and the milk have all disappeared. They are all exhausted. The difficult times are far from over. The riot is over but the rats are yet to be taken care of. It will be quite some time before the cat(s) reestablishes their lost domain.

Bedabrata Das