Chandrakant sees a WhatsApp message and is immediately put off by it. That resident- what was his name? Chandra can’t recall – has again made a silly comment and triggered a comment storm in the group.
Comment explosions had hardly bothered Chandra earlier. But ever since he had become head of the executive committee two months ago, every comment that had a potential to trigger a comment storm worried him.
Sometimes people attacked him directly. Sometimes they sent cryptic messages to target him. Chandra, otherwise a sensitive man, is slowly getting used to it.
The cause for concern is an elderly woman and some stray cats she feeds. The cats have made the society their home. Under the staircase, in the children’s playing area, on the window sills, they or their bodily waste is everywhere.
They defecate in the children’s area burying their fecal content in the sand often exhumed by children while playing in it. Several of society’s children have contracted viral infection. Now any kid falling sick is blamed on the sand.
Parents are worked up. There is tension in the air. All of them don’t express their anger by posting comments on the Whatsapp group, some of them do. Chandra knows the actual anger is much more than what’s expressed in the Whatsapp group. He is concerned if anything serious happens to any child, residents will direct their wrath at him.
The lady who feeds strays always spoils for a fight. She doesn’t admit the stray cats are responsible for anything and a violent argument ensues. But Chandra knows whenever he approached the lady to tell her not to feed strays, he was too diffident.
“Caaa…can I request you to feed the cats outside the society?”
“What’s your problem if I feed them here? What harm these poor things have done to anyone?” The woman had retorted loudly. She has a reputation of being eccentric. She doesn’t need any provocation to go completely hysterical.
Because of her hostility, no one is willing to approach her to ask her to not feed the cats inside the building.
When Chandra had been approached with this problem about the lady, he was just a few weeks old in the management committee. Earlier he had heard about the woman and had thanked his stars she was not on the same floor as Chandra’s. Being approached with the problem was the first time Chandra had felt the rough side of the job.
He was always reluctant to volunteer for a position in EC. He had done it to avert a crisis. The former EC team’s term had expired and no one was volunteering to form a new EC team. Chandra is a private person but he often sticks out his neck for common interest…and surprises himself by doing so. He never knew so many residents would vote for him. When they did, it was a mixed feeling. Euphoria accompanied by foreboding.
It is then that Rajat came up with an idea. The idea was not particularly novel, but it felt like a magic bullet which could solve the problem.
“Let”s ask our facility manager to catch the cats, put them in his scooter and leave them in a far- away place where the felines wouldn’t be able to find their way back home,” Chandra had said.
A big basket was purchased. It was put in the leg space of a scooter. But the FM couldn’t catch them. He tried a week later, making sure the cat feeding lady wasn’t around.
After a few failures, the facility manager left food laced with sedatives strewn in various places. It helped him to catch the cats and put them in his basket. The cats were transported, one at a time, to a distant location.
It was discreetly told to some residents in the society, and the word spread among other residents. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
Residents had expected the cat feeding lady to come to know about the covert operation and create a racket. But that didn’t happen.
She was uncharacteristically composed going about her life as if nothing had happened. Some people said she had come to know about the location where the cats were released and was going there to feed them. Some said they had seen her going by scooter carrying food. No one knew what had really happened.
Be that as it may, the security guards and facility staff were told to make sure no cat entered the society. Some years ago they had been able to successfully prevent dogs from entering the society by simply keeping the main gates shut.
But cats are different. They have good memories. After sometime all the discarded felines retuned to the society. Cats are also nimble. They can scale walls.
This time the cats were again given food laced with sedatives, captured and released outside. And the entire skyline of the society was covered by iron mesh. That helped.
After sometime people forgot. But they started complaining about rats. Their numbers rose and it became normal to see them scurrying around. Then someone said we need those cats back.
Chandra and the cat loving old lady laughed. Chandra because his terms was up by then. The cat feeding lady because of a sadistic pleasure.
Casual Notes 