My Extended Family..

My family used to be of 5 members – My Mom and Dad, My two brothers and me, but it has now expanded and now it includes – 1 dog, 1 cat and her 3 newly born kittens and 4-5 crows (Yes you have read it write ,  Weird but true. My family includes Crows also J).

Let me explain you how all these new members became part of my family. Due to my mom’s strong rule of not to have any animal at home, we never had any pet. It all started with the cat (She is now proud mother of three lovely kittens). One day someone abandoned the newly born kitten in our building premises. Since our home is at ground floor my mom heard the crying of that kitten. She came out of our house and saw that lonely, hungry and scared kitten (Obviously my mom’s heart melted), she tried to search for that kitten’s mom but she failed. So my mom gave some milk and secured that kitten from stray dogs under our buildings staircases at ground floor. That’s it, from that day she became part our family. It did not took much time for that cat to realize that this house will provide adequate food to feed her. From that day she never left our building. And since she (The cat) was not staying at our home, my mom did not have any objection.

One fine morning a crow with broken leg came to our window. As my dad was doing something near the window, he saw that crow. As sympathy to his broken leg, he gave some food and water to that crow. Next day at same time that crow return, but this time he was not alone he had bring some more crows (I think it may be his family). So my dad gave some wheat and corn to them, as a result they became our regular customer.

With passing days our cat has grown enough to fight with others. She has claimed our premises and has become self announced boss of this territory. One day while I was giving milk to our cat, a dog came near our gate. He (the dog) was tall and brown in color, well grown up. As soon as the cat saw that dog she thought her territory is in danger and she launched attack on the dog. I was stunned to see that. I thought cats are scared of dogs, but without any fear she jumped on the dog. Due to sudden attack dog got scared and ran away and stood very far from our gate. I felt sorry for that dog and gave some biscuits to him. From that day every morning when I leave for my office he (the dog) accompanies me till main road and when I returned he walk with me till my house ( of course he still does not dare to come face to face with our cat). This dog is very friendly; all the children’s of my building loves him. They play with him and he also enjoys being with them.

This way all these members have joined our family. Our cat has now become the proud mother of three lovely kittens. It’s a joy to see her playing with them, to see her feeding them and to see how she protects them. Everything is going great except, the crow needs there food on time otherwise they will not keep quiet until you give something to them. My cat and dog still does not like each other. Every day we witness their fight and every time my dog gets defeated by cat.

No matter how much we tried to get reed of them they are now part of our family and we are happy to be at their service. J

That Day I Realized ...

 It was raining heavily since last night. Almost 8:30 Am and it was still dark outside. I was in hurry to catch my bus to go to office.  I took rickshaw from my house till bus depot. I secured myself from rain by standing in queue under bus stop roof.  People were standing quietly in queue waiting for bus, some enjoying rain and some getting irritated.  Suddenly rain stopped and we all got blessed by sun shine.

I was happy that rain finally stopped and now I don’t have to be very cautious to protect myself from rain.  As I was enjoying the atmosphere and looking everywhere, I saw one boy standing at the corner of the bus depot. He was completely wet, had worn nothing but shorts, bare foot, shivering, it looked like he was out there in rain from past night.  I don’t know why but it gave me very disgusting feeling and I turned my face to opposite side.
People were making weird faces while looking at that boy and then were behaving like that boy doesn’t exist.  From corner of my eye I again dare to  looked at that boy , he was shivering badly and it seemed that he had not ate anything (might be he is hungry from past 1,2 .. , I don’t know how many days).

Our bus came at bus stop and every one hurried to get into the bus. Suddenly that boy also moved towards the bus and tried to get into the bus. People started shouting on him. The bus conductor came and scolded on that boy and asked him to go away from the bus. The scared boy moved away from bus, still shivering. I got into the bus and sat near window. Our bus started and as our bus moved I looked again at that boy, he was still there standing bare foot and looking at us with his big deep black eyes.  Suddenly I felt very bad, my heart started paining. 

I asked one question to myself – Why I did not helped that boy? One cup of tea and some biscuits could have been great relief for him (and it could have cost me not more than Rs. 10), then why I did not do that? Is it because of money? No, of course not, Rs. 10 is not such a big deal for me. Then what was the issue? 
I got my answer. I t was not the money or time issue. I did not helped that boy because I thought what other will thing if I helped that boy?  , what if somebody sees me with that boy? I did not helped that boy because everybody were hating him. I did not helped that boy because I thought he does not belong to us. Somewhere I challenged his existence also.  And as all these thoughts started coming into my head, I felt very shallow, selfish and fake. Here I am who always complain because 1/4th part of my pant got wet due to rain and there was a boy out there in rain from past night , standing quietly , looking at people with big hopeful eyes with hope that someone will help.

How many times it happens that we are in position to help others but by giving stupid excuses we just escapes from our responsibilities. I have made a biggest mistake, but I am ready to correct it by changing my attitude.  Change always should start from the man in the mirror.