Good Niece Vidya and the Magazine Store Cats: Bangalore, India, Part 3

This is my good Niece Vidya, and she loves cats - in fact, she loves all animals. For the most part, she tells me, she has a higher regard for animals than she does for people. Two days before I took this picture, Vidya was not my niece, but since she is the wife of Vivek's brother, Vijay, she has called me "Uncle" ever since the wedding . I like it when she calls me "Uncle," and she likes it when I call her, "Niece."

Tonight, I had big plans to tell all about how Niece Vidya and Nephew Vijay took me to Vidya's favorite magazine store - not because of the thousands of magazines sold there, but because 10 cats live in that store. Back in her native Chennai, where her parents still reside, Vidya lived in the presence of cats, but now she cannot have a cat at home, so she loves to go to that magazine store, just to visit all these cats.

So I was going to write about our little trip there, and the long discussions that we have since had about cats and other animals, both when I was in India and now by email and chat - at least until very recently. Vidya just became the mother of a brand new baby girl who has the most thick head of beautiful, black, hair that you can imagine. So Niece Vidya has been preoccupied, but I am confident that our email and chat discussions will soon resume. I look forward to it. 

Anyway, I did not get much sleep last night... last week... last month... how long has it been? It is now early tomorrow morning and I am just too tired to put together the entry that I had planned.

Therefore, I will just introduce Vidya now. Tomorrow night, hopefully, I will tell more of the story.

As for the elephant, it regularly visits a temple very near the home Vidya and Vijay share with Vijay's parents. Vidya has come by for a blessing. The elephant obliges and gives her one. The elephant also blessed me. It was a most special feeling when that elephant placed the tip of its trunk upon my head, and blessed me. I suppose that a cynical person might say that the elephant did not really bless me at all, that she only touched my head with her trunk, because she was trained to know that is what she had to do to get the cluster of miniature bananas that I gave to her, but let me tell you, whatever you believe, when an elephant reaches out with its big, strong, trunk, and then with the soft sensory tip, touches you lightly upon the head, it is wonderful. It is a blessing.

Thank you, elephant at the temple for Ganeesha, Remover of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings, Lord of Success - Ganeesha who Himself lost his head and then had it replaced with the head of an elephant; thank you, Vidya, for taking me to this elephant. And the cats, of course.

After the blessing by the elephant, we returned to the house and Vidya served up some coffee. If I could drink some of that coffee right now (and, oh! If you have not tasted Indian coffee, prepared right, then I suggest that you hop on a plane and head to India right now, before the price of gas goes up any more and try some) perhaps I would become energized enough to do the entry I had planned tonight. So I will try again tomorrow. I need to say something more about those cats, too, and the man who invited them into his store.