Chip

Pretty much your average cat. Started out as the runt of his litter. Now, he struts about like a male flamenco dancer, gets in fights with other toms, tries to bully girl cats. Gave blood to help save a sick cat being treated at a clinic. We really like him now but he's probably going to piss us off again when he starts caterwauling at some other cat late some night.

Princey: adult male Indian dog for adoption in Bangalore

Meet Princey. A sterlised male Indian dog, he was a community dog, looked after by the residents of the Ejipura EWS colony. In January 2013, when the BBMP's bulldozers tore down the neighbourhood he lived in, as the result of an illegal deal with a private developer, he was hit by one of the bulldozers and severely wounded. Even while their homes were being razed to the ground, some of his caretakers found the time and compassion to crudely bandage his wound and cover him with some cardboard, which is how I found him on the 25th of January:

When I took this photo, I was on the verge of despair. He looked really bad and I was desperate to get help for him. I called a helpline for stray dogs, but to no avail. I asked if anyone could organise a volunteer with a vehicle to help me take the dog to a vet, because I don't have a vehicle. Finally, I started flagging down autos. The first couple of auto drivers took one look at this dirty, bloody dog and refused to take us. I begged the third one to take us and offered him extra money. A lady from the area helped me load the dog, whom she said was called Princey, into the auto. I took him to Cessna Lifeline in Indiranagar, where he was sedated and prepared for an examination:

Once he was x--rayed, the doctor told me that the wound had cut through a bone and the marrow was exposed. The leg would have to be amputated. I agreed to the procedure and signed the consent form. I went back to EWS location, unsure if Princey would make it. A day later, the doctor told me that the operation has been successful. After a week of convalescence, Princey was ready to go home. Only, he had no more home to go back to. Instead of living in a neighbourhood where he is given food and friendship and a place to sleep in return for serving as a sentry, he would be going back to a deeply precarious existence on the pavement. I'd already heard of two of the displaced dogs of the EWS being killed by speeding vehicles, and saw one such death myself. I couldn't return Princey to such an uncertain fate. So he came home with my wife Yasmine and me, where he is currently in the lap of luxury:

Princey is an intelligent, affectionate and gentle dog. He gets along well with our cats and would probably be good with children. He is about a year old and healthy, apart from his missing leg. He's a survivor and he deserves a great home. Please contact me if you would like to adopt him. My number is (0)8105396401.

My best and shortest poem yet.

'August Speaks'
I will destroy you as leaves wither
You will never see winter

 

 

Death as an inmate is bad enough
But at least it is intimate
You can try and participate, and shape
Perform some ritual, sprinkle some dirt
Say a few words or none at all
You can clasp hands with the reaper
In that moment of closeness
And feel you are entrusting something
Not simply losing a friend

It comforted me to think that death
Was a solemn caller, almost
A part of the inner circle
O death I feel betrayed today
You are everywhere; promiscuous
You'll take anyone, but even that
Isn't what makes me feel desolate
Nor is realising that you don't care
That, impartial, impassive, apathetic
You'll slice anyone away
Anywhere

But that the whole world is a mass murder
A sprawling abattoir and burial pit
And yours is the sign and the seal
Your flag hangs above our cities
Your fame is omnipresent
Your dominions are expansive
We are all destined to be yours
You are bigger than my life, my death
Most of all it frightens me
To be reminded I live in your empire

your pop culture machine is out of kilter
do you know what it filter
s out do you

?

No. 

Era of Tribulation, the re-release of all of Bangalore death/doom legends' Dying Embrace's recording to date has dropped. I'll be reviewing it in a few days, but in the meantime here's something I wrote about the band's past:

1996, Bangalore.

A few of us had headed down to Baldwin Park in the Richmond Town area to watch a free rock concert. We were all getting into the heavier stuff at the time and what we really wanted to hear was some heavy music. Metal to us meant a mix of NWOBHM and Bay Area thrash at the time, although some of the more radical kids were getting into death metal. Still, nothing we’d heard really prepared us for the shockwaves that hit us when a band called Misanthrope got on stage…shockwaves that echo to this day.

Because Misanthrope was the initial monicker for the outfit that would rename itself Dying Embrace just a few months later. Their sound was a sick, twisted mix of piledriving death riffing and eerie, funebreal doom melodies. The drums were slamming and the vocals were a gurgling, growling assault on the senses. ‘Weird…and evil!’ is how Sid Naidu of Bangalore thrash act Threinody describes Jimmy Palkhiwallah’s approach to his axe, and that sums up the overall vibe that Dying Embrace was putting out. When I got hold of a copy of their tape Serenades Of Depravity (released on February 13^th, 1997, fittingly enough Friday the 13^th!), I remember being disoriented yet fascinated by the way this band could mix it up with haunting, elegiac melodies following hard on the heels of piledriver riffing. The music wasn’t just aggressive – it was pitch black, like midnight in the abyss. ‘Everything had to be dark, ominous and evil,’ as singer Vikram Bhatt puts it.

The truth is, Dying Embrace’s extremity made them fringe figures in the scene as it was then. A lot of us thought we knew what heavy music was about, but the kind of devil-may-care intensity and disregard for convention displayed by the Dying Embrace crew was beyond the comprehension of too many self-styled headbangers. That didn’t bother the members of Dying Embrace who are, in Vikram’s words, ‘friends first and a band later.’  That sense of togetherness and shared belief in their sound meant more than the whims of the scene. But when the rhythm section of Jai (bass) and Danny (drums) moved from Bangalore for work reasons, Jimmy and Vikram didn’t really find people who could fill their shoes personally as well as musically. So Dying Embrace was laid to rest for the time being, dead but dreaming…

Some people saved their cats along with the few possessions they could carry away from the EWS demolitions in Ejipura. While social workers go around feeding people, a group of boys shared their food with pigeons.