Lala Land

I love pets. Many a times my heart is filled with regret when I come across a cute small pet cozy with it's master. I know that they are stress busters. They can give purpose to your life.I know it too. But there is always a lurking fear in my mind that I may loose my freedom to travel around if I keep a pet. If at all my dream comes true I always would like to keep mammals as my pets rather than a lizard or dung bee. As far as my limited knowledge goes big animals have distinct capacity to express their love and have got bigger brains to act. Somehow I have no great fancy for rats , cats and pigs being my pets though. Perhaps, my backgrounds plays a major role in doing so.


During the course of my interaction with Westerners I really started feeling very funny about their obsession with pets. Many floating stories of cats and dogs inheriting millions of pounds or dollars during my child hood still live fresh in my memories. Yet the live demonstrations of their fashionable pet hair grooming, coloring,flashy dressing make me weary of things going around. Dog food is something which is showing up in Indian markets of late. But out here we find many chefs creating special dog foods using all their culinary skills. We come across countless pet food with high protein, fibers, vitamins, vegetables. Not to talk about pet diet foods which always give me kind of weird feeling. Don't they deserve a special food as much as a human ? When the question comes I find it difficult to convince my self about their ability to differentiate between raw meat and special fancy food. We find People here coming up with thousands of business plans to capture your fancy ideas. I come from a country where animals are loved and respected. But at the same time I belong to a country where millions of human beings can not afford a meal twice a day. There is nothing wrong if it looks crime to me. I felt that whole humanity is being insulted. It may sound strong but I got to say it.


What ever may be my preferences with regard to pets I was delighted to be encountered by numerous animals in Disney Land.Even the pigs manage to look cute. No animal was looked down by Walt Disney and were made worth to be a special character in their creations. They became heroes with umpteen number of tales attached to them. The ambiance looked gorgeous.The houses look very much like fairy tale castles with mellowed lighting. It is as though you are making journey into dreamy fairy land. The rides were meticulous and thrilling. The shows were spectacular. The celebration walk was delightful . The fire works were amazing. The laser show was incredible. Totally it was a fantastic experience.It was more than what I expected out of it. It is equally enthrawling for all age groups. Momentarily I shirked the creeping cynicism about the attractions of places.

In the past very often I questioned my self skeptically if I am living longer. What worth is life which is robbed off curiosity, enthusiasm and bubbling energy to live into it? May be our sages were right in prescribing "Vanaprasthashramam" after some age. On the soils of Disney Land I shunned my passivity and felt how nice it would have been it I were to be a child. Those parrots, squirrels, bears, tigers, would have been very real to me.I would have been swayed by their songs, stories, and exclamations.I would have awaited for them to come alive.How can I forget my childhood fanciful dream of finding a Lilliput some where sometime and hiding it away from my parents?

Since long time I had a strong feeling that we need to work a lot about our kids, their small world of wonders, fairy tales, mysteries, adventures, and good will. We can't even produce a movie for them.We fail to capture their imagination. They are forced to watch adult scrap of sex , violence, and wicked humour along with us.They have been imbibed with false values suitable for a movie.We cannot miss to see many of our small kids acting like small sized land lords, businessmen, government officials, politicians and celebrities. Their egos have been bloated up by what they see at home and around.When communications were in their primitive days lots of folk lore and epic movies produced in olden days were instrumental in building the character of a person. With growing number of parents with sparse time and knowledge to pass on the traditional wisdom to the kids, cartoon network substitutes the gap with lot of information about spider Man, Superman, Pokemon, etc..etc..not a bit of smell of indigenous soil.Thanks for Hanuman series. We don't really appear anywhere. Truly nowhere.How many of them know that Arabian nights had roots in Indian folk lore? They were admired by every one in the world. How my Vishnu Sharma the first genius to make animals speak and act like humans is not shining like a jewel in the crown?


"I am also an Indian like you. I don't get respect in this country. Will you treat me well if I come to your country?" asked one Mexican during the bus journey. I remembered the lines I read somewhere that we two Indians have got most dissimilar DNA in our bodies. I was overwhelmed by many answers from within which I could never utter. " I am an Indian with feathers. You are an Indian with something on the fore head (Bottu). So we are same" totally American looking lady said while appreciating my Saree. Again many queries from within overpowered me. What does the world know about me? Am I showing anywhere? Am I recognized? Am I getting my due? If not why?

Above all, am I so simple to define? How can I explain them that I had few comparisons? My present day is inertia from my centuries of toil. I am resilient. Iam here to rise and conquer.