CATS and Kitty Karma

Mai is standing over me and telling me that I MUST write something here. This time she is right. I don't like for people to see a fight when they first see my blog. That does not fit with my dove or with my self-image. LOL.

She suggested a topic. Can an obligatory carnivore be a Jain? We had read a post from Eleanor Bloom's blog where she talked about cat karma. We both laughed long and hard at that.

The answer to the question is, No. Not in this lifetime. Eventually, the soul will progress to human form. Then she can become a Jain, if she does not run into Mai and her Sikhs first.

(Mai: Lilly, is that an insult?)

No, not at all. Just a fact. You make being a Sikh look so attractive and fun and joyful.

(Mai: 'Except for that, Mrs. Kennedy, did you enjoy the parade?')

I know, but you still do, even so.

Now she says I must find at least one picture and I have to figure out what words to enter. I'll try cat mouse.

There are 7,660,000 pictures with cat mouse. I chose these. Mai said I should try cat kill mouse and cat eat mouse, but I said no. This is my blog and I am not going to show ugly, violent pictures on it. I will go no farther than describing her beating up my husband.

Now she says I need to find a cat song. I have an idea, but she has to go away while I do this. Mai, go eat a potato or something for a few minutes, please.

(Mai: OK)

Mai, you can come back now.

(Mai: Oh, you do have a sense of humour, Ms. Lilly! You win.)

What do I win? A Jain potato, maybe?

hehehehehehehehe

Now she says I need a SiteMeter. Maybe another time.

A Fight

Last night was terrible. Raj and Mai got in a fight. I mean a real fight. They argue all the time, they never stop. He says Sikhs are really Hindus. She says not. So they argue and even insult each other. They have done this for at least 30 years. Last night they got in a fight. She hit him. He hit her. She did that thing she does, she threw him over her shoulder. He landed on his ankle. She jumped on him and he screamed because her knee was in his crotch. Now he has a sprained ankle and is sore. Mai has a bruise on her cheek but she seems to be unharmed. If it matters, she won the fight. (Mai here: Of course, it matters!)

My husband and my best friend! She threw the first blow, but I can understand why she was so angry. There used to be a song called, Oh, What a Night. It starts, Oh, what a night, late December back in 63 was a very special night for me. Only Raj changed the date to late October back in 84 and made the song into a story about raping a Sikh woman in Delhi. No, my Raj did no such thing. He was in Montreal at the time. Mai was angry, but she freaked out when he reached the line, Sweet surrender, what a night.

I know violence can never be justified and Mai was wrong to hit him, but he was doing violence against her spirit and I can understand. He knows she is very ill and I think he thought that she was finally weak enough that he could defeat her. Anger is violence and I am trying very hard not to be angry at either of them.

I am worried about her. All of us are. I think she is more alive today than she has been for a couple of weeks. I am staying with her today while Simon is at work. We think she should not be left alone at this time. So far she hasn't objected.

I am going to put the words of that song on the lyrics scroll to the right. They are the original words, not Raj's words (Mai: which are better forgotten.)

Lilly's Avatar

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WHY TRY TO FIT IN WHEN YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT?

Jain Potato

I have never eaten a potato. Now Mai has sent me this link about a potato that grows on a vine. I don't think any are available here, but she has some idea of trying to grow a vine potato herself. If I know Mai, she'll probably figure out some way to do it. For 50 years, I have been hearing how wonderful French fries, chips, taste. They do smell good. Maybe someday I'll find out! I know that self indulgence is a sin, but I'm not really the saint she thinks I am. Here is this article from the Times of India: Now, Jain potato in pav-bhaji 6 Dec 2006, 0241 hrs IST , TNN JUNAGADH: The Jain pav-bhaji may no longer come sans potatoes. A farmer in a village in Junagadh claims to have come up with a wonder potato - one that grows above the ground. For Girish Akbari, it's the fruit of months of research in his farm in Patarpur village in Una taluka. For Jains, it could be the freedom to enjoy the potato, with their religion keeping them from having any vegetable that is grown underground. Akbari, who hails from Rajkot, has even named his find the 'Jain potato'. "We have been experimenting for the past 18 months. We used a grafting technique and succeeded. We have also grown gourd in a similar way.We created this hybrid by grafting a potato onto a grape vine. It grew best during the monsoons," adds Akbari. While about 80 to 10 kg of potatoes grew on one vine alone last year, he expects the yield to be about 400 kg per vine. "They are initially green but turn brown on ripening. They even last for over a year after they are picked," he says. And, they are more nutritious. Testing at the Saurasthra University's biotechnology department found this variety to have significantly more protein than those grown underground. It also contained less starch and calories while it had similar amount of fibre. And the taste? Akbari says there is no difference. "All regular dishes - from curry to potato vada and chips - taste the same. You cannot tell the difference," claims Akbari. However, some experts have expressed doubts. "Grafting will change the characteristic of the potato. It is not possible to have potatoes through grafting," says P Butani, principal of the Agriculture College, affiliated to the Junagadh Agriculture University. Akbari has sent the potato to a Central laboratory in Delhi for confirmation.

Mai

One Aspect of Mai

And she's like this, too.

Mai has been my best friend for 50 years. I think I know her better than anyone else except maybe Mani and he is dead.


Her legal name is a long involved thing with Indian and French all mixed up together and she won't put it on that Internet. I'll respect her wishes in that. Her Sikh name is Harinder Kaur. She thinks Harinder is too big for her because Har is God and Inder is God. So her name is GodGod Princess.

She is not like she appears in this blog. Everything here is true, but she comes across as violent and always looking for a fight. She is not like that. She doesn't object to fighting, but she never starts a fight and she doesn't fight unless she thinks she has to.

But she is really a very kind, gentle person. One time I asked her what she regretted most in her life and she said every time she had been unnecessarily unkind to someone. That is the kind of person she is.


She is very funny. She always makes us laugh. I think she could have been a stand-up comedian. What she says is hilarious and her timing is impeccable. No matter what happens to her, I have never seen her lose her sense of humour.


I remember her in the hospital in 1984. At first when she came she was so badly beaten you couldn't recognise who she was. Of course, she was in a coma for a long time. I wasn't there when she came to, but I have heard the story about how she cussed everyone out because the others were dead and she wasn't.


That's another thing about her. She isn't afraid of dying. Its not that she is fearless like some people think, but she isn't afraid of dying. LOL, you should see her bait my husband Raj. He is a Hindu, not a Jain and can get rough. I shouldn't admit it, but listening to them is real entertaining.


You know her as strong and courageous. She is! She is also vulnerable and she has weaknesses. What kind of a friend would I be if I told you those? OK, she is terrified of heights. She had a plan to overcome that. She had already hired an airplane and a pilot and arranged to be taught how to skydive when she had her stroke last year. She said if she could jump out of an airplane, she would be conquering this thing that made her so mad. Now they'll never let her do it because she has to take boodthinners for the rest of her life. She has talked about going to that clear bridge thing a mile up above the Grand Canyon. When I ask her why, she just gives me that look and says that the way out is through.


She has a very tender heart. She feels like any injustice she sees is being done to her personally, no matter who it is or where or when. If she sees something she gets involved. No woman would get raped or robbed while she stood and watched.


We are both women of principal. We believe what we believe and we live like we believe. What we believe is very different, but we respect each other.


That's another thing about Mai. She says it's one of the basic Sikh beliefs to be tolerant of our differences. I haven't noticed most Sikhs to be very tolerant, but Mai really is. You can disagree with her about almost anything and she won't get mad and she'll listen with an open mind. That is almost. She is not tolerant of the prejudices people have about race, religion, ethnicity's, gender, all that sort of thing. If you want to make her angry, tell a racist joke. She especially hates those. And if you want to be dead, tell her an anti-Sikh, Sardar joke! She won't tolerate those.


I think that is Mai as I know her. I could write on and on, but I'm not a good writer, so I think this is enough. If I think of more I can write more later.