Relocating to a new city can lead to all kinds of adventures. When I very first shifted to Mumbai from Goa, my weekends have been eaten by discovering museums and artwork galleries, stuffing myself with keema at Irani cafés or tandoori quail at Mohammed Ali Street. I’d get neighborhood trains for the heck of it, just to see exactly where I’d wind up even losing a chappal in my initial monsoon appeared like an oddly poetic minute to my touristic sensibilities. Lastly, following a 12 months, my gregarious strategy to the town calmed down, and I commenced to slip into my new environs in a significantly less contrived manner.

Alternatively of carrying out factors newcomers may experience they ought to, I began to examine Mumbai in a far more normal way, and that manifested itself, especially, in my walks. I experienced already moved once inside of the city, from the not-so-pedestrian-helpful Worli to the not-so-economically-helpful Bandra, but selected pieces of my new locality made it a walker’s paradise.

I began to have a digicam on my increasingly standard jaunts, clicking shots of waves of bougainvillea cascading more than bungalow walls and rusty Padminis. Pretty much every block in this closely Catholic swathe of the suburbs showcased a statue of Christ. I also observed that my new dwelling had virtually as quite a few stray cats as monuments of Jesus’ suffering. Now, I had befriended stray pet dogs all over the place from Goa to Buenos Aires, but cats were normally given a large berth. Even now, I commenced to meet up with so several of them on my walks I couldn’t aid but get pulled in by their existence.

Component of the attraction was that I normally took my strolls when I hit a wall of writer’s block, yet when I encountered these creatures my creative malaise appeared to crumble absent. Observing these cats seemed to accelerate time, turning minutes into seconds, however they on their own moved like molasses: their eyes, like polished gemstones, usually casting gorgeous glares their coats, intricate and vibrant, bringing the colors of existence to dusty streets. Cats have influenced much more than just a pedant’s prose, for so numerous noteworthy authors have expert a in the same way robust affinity for them, be it Twain, Eliot, or Yeats. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley advises, “If you want to publish, preserve cats,” which may be the most useful notion the Oxford-educated philosopher at any time penned.

“There are no standard cats.”

~ Colette

Gradually, I started getting portraits of them. Beguiled by the polarity of their unimpressed gazes and fluent grace, I scouted out a nicely in Khar, the lanes of the Chuim, Chimbai, and Ranwar villages, and the bungalows close to Saint Andrew’s grounds, everywhere I could discover their feline settlements.

Possibly receiving more mature had warped my strategy of what ‘fun’ was, but this pastime thrilled me to no conclude. I was now increasing my strolling routes, determined to uncover more cat havens. I would gab to my friends about all the cats I met over the weekend, and a lot of would glance at me with a pity reserved for anyone starting up to drop their minds. Other individuals, having said that, took a bemused desire in my interest, and began supplying me suggestions on wherever to find other strays to photograph.

“Cats never ever strike a pose that is not photogenic.”

~ Lillian Jackson Braun

A corner on Carter Road turned out to be an remarkable tip, main me to a gang of close to ten cats, all congregated close to the entrance of a creating in which they have been consistently fed by a handful of people. Squatting on my haunches, I snapped away at this assorted cat clique. So engrossed was I that I scarcely registered a team of teeny boppers that emerged on the sidewalk. I presumed that they took me for a mildly critical man or woman (possibly, a cat-mongering influencer?) as they started clicking shots of me getting the cats’ pics. Just then, a sea breeze alerted me to the actuality that my denims have been somewhat pulled down in the stereotypical plumber trend, and I realised that the source of their desire was maybe a seen snippet of my derrière. As decided as I was to capture the poise of these languid critters, it seemed as if that working day I managed to be the minimum classy creature on the fast paced promenade, an unlucky minute to be relived on some adolescents’ TikTok accounts.

“A cat has complete psychological honesty: human beings, for one rationale or one more, might cover their feelings, but a cat does not.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

Another mate instructed I venture deep into Chimbai Village, close to the ocean, where a drove of cats slumbered away at significant noon. I paused to consider a photo of a chubby ginger scowling in its slumber less than a bhaji cart. A resounding, “Oye!” rang out throughout the street. The lane whole of fisherman and building staff averted their eyes from the angry copper staring me down as he waved me to his rumbling Enfield. Now my Hindi is shameful, but the gist of the discussion was that overseas-wanting men using pictures next to the docks was the variety of suspicious conduct that reminded him of David Headley, a important determine in the 2008 Mumbai terror assaults. Sweat percolated out of my pores. Before I knew it, my driver’s license and PAN card ended up in his palms, and he took photos of them, bit by bit, so he could observe me squirm. It seemed as if he desired me to consider my wallet out to motivate me to offer you him a bribe that he would then maintain against me. His thick mouche wiggled like a cat completely ready to pounce, primed to wreak havoc on a clueless pigeon.

But from time to time, grovelling is bribe sufficient, and I am well versed in the artwork of spineless obsequience. “Mujhe maaf kardo ji, yeh meri galti hai. Mera dimaag thoda kharaab hai bhaiya, chhod do na… remember to.” I could not inform if my Hindi was so painful it offended him, or that my deficiency of dignity satiated his ego, but I finally received the go-ahead grunt to go away, and did so with my tail tucked firmly among my legs. As I walked back again I noticed a cop automobile surrounded by loads of jostling folks. “Just my luck,” I imagined. There was nowhere to escape, so I tucked my camera beneath my arm and pushed on.

As I tried using to inch previous the melee, I unwillingly became a element of the group encompassing the police car or truck. Individuals held on asking the uniformed fellow seated on the passenger’s facet issues, other people passing chits of paper by means of the open up window for him to indication. As I squeezed earlier this cop’s apparent admirers, I made a decision to snap a quick picture of this puzzling scene but taking into consideration my latest disagreeable encounter, I gestured to the person in uniform with my digital camera, figuring that was an innocuous plenty of of an technique. He caught my eye and glowered at me, lifting up his lathi via the window so it was pointed correct between my eyes. “Not once more,” I imagined, but just then he gave me a cheeky wink, pleased that he managed to make me switch inexperienced in a mere minute.

I managed to shuffle my way previous the group, opening up to a see of a comprehensive digicam crew capturing a scene in a modest electronics retail store. Lo and behold, I was in the middle of Television set soap opera set, and the ‘popular policeman’ I experienced crossed paths with turned out to be an actor interacting with his supporters. I almost certainly would have uncovered this circumstance amusing, other than my nerves ended up presently fairly frayed. Who expects to endure an episode of fantastic cop, negative cop when they set out to acquire images of cats?

“In historical instances cats have been worshipped as gods they have not forgotten this.”

 ~ Terry Pratchett

As I took the slow prepare to Maritime Strains, I caught my head out in complete filmi vogue, a terribly idiotic, and pleasurable, thing to do. I was headed to test out a ‘cat alley’ yet another mate had graciously uncovered for me. We satisfied outdoors the bustling facade of Liberty Cinema, and a couple of blocks later on identified ourselves in an alley whole of felines lounging on ledges, as if they have been emulating Cleopatra herself. A person in certain seemed in excess of her shoulder as I took a shot, her distant gaze daring me to check out and just take a bad image of her. The rest of the working day I marched across Fort and Colaba, I achieved a calico blend stalking crows and a cat with heterochromia in her eye: a deep auburn iris paired with a piercing blue a single. Panwallas and sugar cane juice distributors chirped at cats just so I could get a better angle for their portraits, and young children paused to appear at the cats I photographed with deep appreciation.

“The cat is the only animal with no visible implies of assistance who nevertheless manages to uncover a residing in the metropolis.”

~ Carl van Vechten

Work steadily reclaimed my weekends, but by the stop of this pastime I experienced travelled almost everywhere from Borivali to Powai, Reduced Parel to Byculla, in look for of these stunning road cats. I had fed a number of strays on my travels, but unfortunately my interactions with them were being minimal to capturing the atmosphere they extra to the city. Fortunately, throughout this pandemic-induced lockdown, my woman close friend of three years finally bit the bullet and brought home a stray in foster treatment. To be truthful, I normally understood she would replace me with a cat. Pretty much just about every working day for in excess of 3 yrs, she’s mentioned to me, “Today, I’m finding a cat.” The pandemic shut down the town, but opened up her coronary heart to that insistent tug: a heat motivation to treatment for a cat, specifically a person in need to have of a spouse and children. Now, I discover myself questioning, if and when this lockdown is at any time lifted, will I take up my outdated interest again, or will I be way too occupied enjoying with my tiny bundle of joy, Imli right after all, as Jules Champfleury says, “There is no far more intrepid explorer than a kitten,” and I believe that this just one demands a travelling companion.

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