The Women In Cages by Vilas Sarang

Author:Vilas Sarang [Sarang, Vilas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2006-05-13T00:00:00+00:00

Rabbit

To the Editor, the Times of India

Sir,

Are the zoo authorities aware of the manner in which their animals are often harassed by visitors—children and adults? I have seen the same attitude in zoos all over the country so it must be a peculiar Indian characteristic. Unfortunately, we cannot change it overnight. Parents and schools will have to teach children to show genuine interest in and kindness to animals. But in the meantime, zoo authorities must be keenly vigilant.

Bombay, September 23

(Miss) Sushna Kumar

1

My father disliked the rabbit. When it came hopping near his reclining chair, he’d scare it away by tapping his palm-leaf fan against the floor; then, as the rabbit scuttled away, he would lean back in his chair and continue to fan himself languidly. (In summer, beset by prickly heat, he used to scratch his back with the handle of the fan.) The chair’s canvas had blue and green stripes, and when he reclined back into it, it curved so deep that he looked like a ship at rest on the floor of the sea.

Everyone fussed over the rabbit when I first brought it home. It was white as snow, and had red glass-bead eyes, and the insides of its ears were pink. It was so very white that it looked out of place in our house. Sometimes, as it sat serenely upon the floor, the evening sun coming in through the window illuminated its entire body, and caused it to glow softly.

We had to keep the rabbit indoors all the time and make sure that the front door was always closed. At night I shut the windows too, to keep out alley cats. The rabbit would wander around the house all day, from room to room, nibble at the cauliflower leaves I gave it, and sometimes become lost for hours in some kind of samadhi in the corner of a room. It always went to a particular corner of my bedroom to pee, and slept under my bed at night. It never uttered a sound. As it hopped from room to room, its paws were equally soundless. It had a strange habit though. If you happened to be standing in a room (perhaps because you didn’t see any point in going out, and yet were tired of just sitting around), the rabbit would come hopping in and start going around you in circles. At first you’d be amused, and you’d wonder why it did that, but after a while, after it had gone round and round noiselessly several times, you’d begin to feel a little uneasy; for it whirled around you like a feather in a whirlwind, and you were the desolate eye of the storm, you’d get annoyed at its mindless behaviour, you’d begin to lose your temper, not knowing what was happening. And if you kicked it gently on its ear, it would freeze in its tracks for a few seconds, as though it were surprised and puzzled, and then begin to circle you again, and you wouldn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.