Friends I have made along the way

Along with all of the wonderful human friends that I have had the pleasure of making in India is a forever growing list of four-legged beasts that daily enrich my life and give me doses of both joy and sometimes heartbreak. I thought that I might introduce you all to some of my current friends who I try to visit daily if I can find them and lately, if they can find me.
One of my most favorite friends is Leo, a little puppy that I noticed a couple of months ago a few blocks from our home rooting through a garbage heap in search for some food. He was very young, alone and looked tragically thin. Despite his desperate situation he was so friendly and adorable that he was just irresistible so I went out and bought a bag of dog food and began to visit him daily. He was soon adopted by some construction workers living at the building site in the emerging structure and I became a regular visitor in the afternoons on my way home from work. Leo soon found a canine friend in Ram, an older male dog who shares Leo’s territory and his sweet and gentle temperament with the sometimes rambunctious Leo won me over so I began to bring him food everyday as well. Everyday I look forward to meeting these guys and I think that they like to see me too, at least for the food. As soon as Leo sees me he jumps up and starts trying to get into my purse or bag looking for his food, but what I believe both he and Ram like best are the pets, scratches and rubs that I dole out liberally. The downside to feeding these fellows on the street is that it invariably draws a crowd of onlookers, people with nothing better to do than to gawk at a foreigner wasting her time on street dogs. But yesterday I had a very nice experience, I had stopped to feed Leo and Ram as usual, they have been expelled from the construction site as new workers have replaced the ones who had adopted them and they now reside on a fairly busy street where they chill in front of the shops that line the road. I had fed Leo and he had fallen asleep on the steps of one of the shops and Ram, who had arrived late to the party, was finishing up his dinner when an elderly Indian gentleman emerged from the shop that we were in front of. He stopped when he saw me and I prepared for the worst, I have been scolded many times by the locals about “spoiling” the dogs and have been told that they won’t eat the dog food that I bring, and to not feed the dogs too near their homes less they be bothered by them. To my surprise and joy, he broke out into a grin and said, “God bless you” and walked away. He had no way of knowing how much his kind words meant to me that evening, I had been so frustrated with this place, with the people in this place and with just 3 effortless words, he restored me.



Another of my canine friends does not have a name, I do not know where he lives, I do not know if he is loved and cared for. I meet him periodically while I am waiting on the roadside in the mornings waiting for my shuttle to pick me up and carry me off to work. He is the most kind and gentle dog and when I look into his eyes I believe that I might be able to see his soul. I always keep several packs of cookies in my bag for such occasions, but he generally prefers to just be petted, refraining from eating too much until I have had to leave him. After every encounter with him I have to wash my hands for several minutes because the poor fellow is so dirty. He would make a wonderful pet and I wish more than anything that some kind person would pick him up, give him a bath, treat his mange, and love him forever.
I do not discriminate when it comes to my friends and so if any cat crosses my path I try to entice it to join my menagerie with extra cat food that I also carry in my pack (as you can imagine my bag is pretty full what with the biscuits, dog food and cat food). That is how I came across Templeton, the temple cat. There is a temple on my street and they love to play dreadful music from loudspeakers beginning from around 5:30 AM every day. I hated that temple. That is, until I met Templeton. Templeton is a glorious ginger tom whose muscles ripple beneath his furry coat unlike the flabby spoiled felines that you will find just down the street in our apartment. Templeton is extraordinary because unlike every other street cat I have ever met; he doesn’t have the good sense to be afraid of people. To the contrary as soon as he spots an unwitting homo sapien he wraps himself around their ankles in a buttery whirl before they realize that he is there. This is only partly true, with Templeton you most often hear him long before you see him, he is the sort of cat that knows what he wants and he isn’t afraid to ask, no, demand it. Templeton has lots of friends at the temple who bring him milk to sustain the friendship and I naturally joined the rabble of adoring Templeton fans but I bring him cat food instead. A man can’t live on milk alone, right? And he doesn’t seem to mind too much if I pet him while he eats, aren’t I lucky? But as I said Templeton is a demanding sort and last Saturday I didn’t go to work and therefore wasn’t at the temple at 6:50 to feed his majesty and he just would not stand for that behavior so he came to find me. He at least waited a few hours to allow me the time to see the error of my ways, but when I hadn’t appeared by 9 I guess he decided enough was enough, he was hungry and he was going to get his breakfast even if it wasn’t delivered. He must have a great sense of smell and could detect the odors of cat food wafting from our open windows and made a beeline for our apartment where he sat himself just under our open window and loudly began to demand that I stop whatever I was doing and get him his breakfast. I of course did as I was told to the horror of Mira and Chaya, but what can I say, I am a slave to Templeton. He stopped by a couple of other times last weekend when he got hungry; I guess he didn’t trust that I would come find him so he took the initiative. I think I have restored his faith in me though as I have made it to the temple on time every day this week to meet him. But today is Friday and I am again not going to work tomorrow so I will be expecting company in the morning.

Sorry, I actually posted this on Monday, not Friday as I had hoped. Templeton did not come to our house this weekend for his breakfast, our house is being painted and he was probably scared away by the workers but fear not, I met him at the temple this morning right on schedule.

Silver Linings

I don't think that I could ever make the argument that I am a starry-eyed optimist, that I'm a glass-half-full sort of gal. But sometimes focusing on the positive is the best way, maybe even the only way to endure. You may remember a post that I wrote several months ago about the relief that accompanied the news that Eric could remain with me in India instead of returning to the US for work. Well, it seems that our luck has run out as we learned this week that when I return to India in January following our winter holiday, I will be alone. We have had these scares in the past but this time Eric assures me that it is definite and we are making plans for his return to the USA.

I should be sad, scared, worried; those would all be rational responses but instead I find myself excited, sometimes almost giddy at the thought of Eric settled back home, just waiting a few short months for me and the girls to arrive. I have happily been making calls to apartment complexes, just thrilled knowing that we will have a place to stay when we arrive back in the US, a home ready and waiting for us almost as though we never left. A home with a stove, oven, adult-sized refrigerator and washing machine, dishwasher, hot water, the list goes on and on and on...

We have been very lucky, we have had the opportunity to spend two whole years (today was our 2 year anniversary of arriving in Bangalore) living an adventure that I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would have. I have been able to share that adventure with the most wonderful guy that I have ever known, we have had some great times here and we have had some miserable times as well but we had them all together. How can I be upset about 6 months apart when we have had such an enriching two years together in India? I feel like expecting any more would be just selfish and I am so happy for Eric that he gets to go home, I know how much he misses it.

I am not an idiot though, I know that my last six months in India without Eric is going to be hard for both of us, we have already done the long-distance thing and it was no picnic. That compared to this was child's play, calling Peoria to Arlington Heights long-distance seems ridiculous when you stack that against Bangalore-Arlington Heights. But we are tough and six months isn't that long; I have Mira and Chaya to keep me company and comfort me and Eric will have Big Macs and Whoppers.

Aren't silver linings wonderful?