Letter to the Unknown Reader Series 1 - The Black Cat and its omen

Hello Dearest Reader,

Hope you have been keeping well. Month of November had been a delight for my travel happy feet. The beginning of the month I could visit my soul’s home in Sikkim and I shared the story of Gasa the dog who gave up his life for his love. I hope you enjoyed the read. However this one is a different one though about animals and the way they have communicated to humans over the eons of time.

End of November took me to the beaches of Goa. The sun, the sea and the sand, was relaxing to say the least, but in a luxuriously leisurely way. The good food, the doing nothing and the ribbon like village roads entwining the greens, lulls you to believe that the world is perfect.

Coming back from one of our long walks post dinner, this jet black silken coated cat greeted me. It was sitting in one of the corners resting slightly on the edges that skirted the garden of our cottages in the resort. And was silently watching the world pass by. I being one of those click friendly people started taking its photograph to show it to my cat lover school buddies.

 All was fine so far, however things started turning strange. The cat started stalking me. Literally, and I’m not kidding about it when I say this. It would not cross my path, and walk by my side and nimbly run a few steps ahead of me turning its head awaited for me to pass by. The moment I will cross by walking a few steps, it will repeat the same action running past me, and looking at me with greenish yellow eyes wanting to convey something. I am an animal lover and have loved dogs and cats since I was a kid. In return I have received unconditional love from them throughout my life. But I’m being honest, a sense of chill and dread blitzed through my spine. As if something is not right… somewhere something is not going right for me. I am a sensitive soul and will like to trust my instincts and gut. I quickly climbed up the stairs to my room trying to increase my distance from the animal. Once up, I told myself if the cat looks up at me directly, I will know that something will not go right for me. And the moment that thought passed my mind, the cat looked up with a piercing gaze and slowly stared climbing the stairs. I rushed into my room locking the doors firmly. For the first time since I saw the cat, I heard a piercing “Meow” right outside my door as if some evil omen waited patiently for me outside the door.  

Saying a silent prayer. I went off to sleep. And as always, I find Universe has a way of communicating, I did face my demons shortly thereafter. Let’s keep the story of disappointment for another time and place. As you never know if a life event is actually positive for you or not much later….when you look back and reminiscence. However, I am always pleasantly surprised how I am oft prepared for things that come into my life, good, bad or ugly. I have learnt to listen to the cosmic rhythms. And to every incident in your life there’s always another side to it. You just need to trust that you’ll be in a place where you’re either required to give or take. Either you learn a lesson or teach some. And once the purpose of your soul is fulfilled you are plucked from that life sequence and put into another.

Some of you’ll know, I am born and brought up in Kolkata which is in the eastern part of country and spent quarter of my life there. Never dreamt of living the city or the job where I had made friends. However life dragged me to the extreme west of the country to the city of Mumbai. Put me in another job to meet new set of folks and make new acquaintances and friends. I grew as a person and a professional. I will not say the journey had been easy but I also feel I wouldn’t have been the person I am today without the displacement.

Some people left my life, who were indispensable at one point . I thought I will not be able to breathe a minute without them. However some newer souls dropped into my life almost from thin air and helped me survive the loss. Helped me love myself once more, helped me to just be happy.

Being a liver transplant patient, I’m often questioned on my mortality. Folks find it unbelievable that I’m comfortable with my life and its limited trajectory. But I know deep down I have spiritually evolved because of that one goddamned illness. It taught me kindness. I know how hard it’s for people to bear the burden of prolonged life threatening illness. It taught me humility. I know how dependent you may have to be for your basic movements and needs on others.  It taught me gratitude towards all those who had been kind and compassionate during my journey to recovery. It also taught me one valuable lesson. That Life is all about impermanence. 

So irrespective of whether the cat is black or white. Irrespective of whether you’re being warned of bad omen or getting happy signals from the universe, it’s not going to last. Simply because you are not going to last. 

I hope dear Reader you do not take your wins or losses so seriously. Don’t be caged by your own perceptions or others’. There’s always another way of looking at things. You will be where you’re meant to be, with those you’re meant to be with, learning lessons from the school of life. One of my revered teachers had once mentioned in one of his teachings a meditation practice, where you wish for  yourself only one thing - “ let me rest in great equanimity without any attachment or aversion “. I wish you the same.

Always yours,

Pocket full of life