We are all so carried away by our child time stories narrated by the elders at home & sometimes try to imitate the characters depicted to us. Ramayana was (still is) very close to my heart as I have heard it over and over close to thousand times and always was impressed by the spirit showed by Squirrels in building the bridge.
I guess by now you would have got an idea as to what the pet could be – Yes it was a very young one hardly few days old. The eyes were still closed about the size of my index finger, brown in color and incessantly calling for help. Crows were circling above and would at any time prey upon it, the Rama inside me woke up and off I went to its rescue.
I must have been in my 5th grade and was preparing for my exams to commence immediately after the holidays. My concentrations levels were so high that I used to wait for an opportunity to get distracted. So after reading for half an hour or so I could hardly memorize two lines. I decided to stay focused in my studies and concentrate hard however nature had some other plans and dropped this rodent right outside my window. My father was in MOD (Ordnance Factory), my mother a home-maker and my brother a “book worm”.
I was the centre of attraction at home when it came to studies and hence during exams I was continuously supervised by my parents every 5 minutes. The situation almost seemed like an imprisoned convict and my parents looked like gun trotting policemen. To recall the events of that day after almost 30 years is so very difficult but wanted to pen it down sometime.
My mom: Beta, how is your study going on? You have two more chapters to finish……
Myself: one eye on the book and another on the squirrel, yeah mom will not take more than few hours, relax ok !!!!!!!
My mom mumbles something and I am busy only contemplating ways to bring the squirrel inside. I made my POA as follows:
- I should somehow go to the garden pick the little one and rush back to my room – 2 minutes.
- Find a place & container to keep the squirrel – 1 minute.
- Feed it immediately to keep it silent – 5 minutes
- Get back to studies in the next ten minutes!!!!
The first two were not that very difficult as there was enough trunks and boxes at home typical of any defense family, problem was how and what to feed. Unless I feed it immediately it would continue shouting and I along with it would be forced from home!!. Age and experience not in my side I made a quick decision on the diet – milk and double quick mathematic on the dilution part – 1:5 milk to water.
How to feed it – simple use an ink filler, more simpler was to flick one of my grandma’s drop filler as she had too many of them. I first cleaned the filler under the pretext of visiting the toilet and prepared the diet by stealing some milk from the refrigerator in the pretext of drinking water. In my enthusiasm I completely forgot about the squirrel and was just in time to save it from a crow which was stooping down on it. I then kept the milk next to my window and called up mom
“Mom I am taking my book to the garden and shall study there as I am distracted by brother studying aloud”. My brother gave me a quizzical look, I made some faces and picked my book.
My unsuspecting mother says: “very good idea beta, when you are with nature your concentration levels increase”. So I step out with a piece of rag to place the squirrel and pick it and creep towards my window. I extract a filler of the diluted milk and feed it drop by drop. To avoid any suspicion I read aloud the memorized lines while feeding.
The squirrel literally sucked every drop of milk and slowly got into the fetal position in my palm. I ran my fingers across its body for few seconds and fed it the second time, half way through it went off to sleep probably tired of all the shouting and hunger. I wrapped it carefully and placed it my pant pocket.
I then studied for half an hour in the garden carefully feeling for any movement in my pocket as I was not sure when it would wake up and feel hungry again. Fortunately it was silent for the next one hour and I could study thoroughly. The added responsibility certainly improved my concentration level and what could have taken couple of hours easily was completed in one hour.
I went inside and told mom: “mom here is the book see if I have memorized the lines perfectly” and told out the lines. She was amazed by the flow and correctness of the answers and gave me a big hug. I too was proud and thanked the squirrel silently and placed it inside a deep tin container with lots of cloth around it.
After about an hour it woke up and called out, I rushed to its side and picked it up to silence it. However my brother saw all this and said he would inform parents if I do not share the pet with him. Having no option I hastily agreed and worked out my plan with him on feeding, timing of feeding and not letting it out of its container till its eye open. He asked me on the food and I explained it to him carefully – I was amused at the irony of things as he was elder to me and I was doing the explanation part. That being so we reconciled to the fact that it would be a secret strictly between us.
It took about three days for it to open its eye and by the end of the week it had developed some fur in its body. My mother did smell something fishy and was wondering about the continuous presence of a bowl and filler in the room, we told her it was part of the experiment in our curriculum and like all mothers she too got convinced. To our luck the squirrel behaved normally most of the time and would sleep through the night. We started feeding it few grains of cooked rice and raw vegetable from the first week onwards and the next set of problems started.
Who would clean the dirty linen – my brother made a big face and said “you brought it in, I am only helping you in keeping the secret and hence you should do the cleaning”. Every day I had to clean three sets of cloth and dry it deep in our garden away from the cloth line so that my parents don’t see it! It was almost 10 days since it had come home and my parents had no clue about it. Partly it was because of the large quarters that we had then, the rooms were large and made of stone, their bed room was relatively away from ours and we had different bathrooms and toilets.
My brother grew tired of it eventually as he saw no fun in taming a squirrel and over a small fight between us told my parents about it. My parents summoned me with the squirrel and I walked to the hall with the squirrel in my shirt pocket. I was shocked to see my father pacing the hall with a cane in hand, mother sitting in sofa with a worried look and brother trying to hide the smile awaiting the cane lashes.
As my father saw me he caught hold of my shoulders and shook it asking “what the hell is happening in this house? How could you decide to bring anything inside this house as a pet and not inform us for more than 10 days? Do you know whether it’s safe to tame a squirrel?”. I sheepishly shook my head but hearing all the shouting and shaking the squirrel peeped out of my shirt pocket and looked directly in my fathers eye for few seconds, gave out a yawn and went back inside the pocket.
My father was so amused by this sight that he smiled & asked me to take it out and place it on the centre table. The little one looked around the new surrounding took few paces in all directions and looked at each of us carefully. After seeing me it jumped on to my lap and went inside my shirt pocket. All of them were so surprised by all this that they laughed aloud and said “you can tame it as long as it behaves well and does not disrupt us in any way”.
I thanked them heartedly and rushed back to my room with the satisfaction that I can now let it roam freely in the house without confining to the deep tin container. I trained it to respond to my calls, I would let out a small chirping sound and keep my palm on the floor. Within few seconds it would come on my palm and look up to me awaiting further instructions. Everyone at home started feeding it generously but it would never allow anyone to hold it or climb on them as it did with me, this gave me a unique pride.
After about a year it suddenly went missing, I searched for it desperately everywhere and called out but in vain. Not sure what could have happened to it, I still miss it but resolved that would never tame any animal in future as the separation was always painful.
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