The Kitten

A few days ago on a calm early morning, I opened the gate of our house and went out to pluck flowers to worship the God Almighty. It was about 4 AM and the street was deserted. However, it was full of activity. The absence of any human being was adequately compensated by flower laden plants on either side of the street. A gentle breeze was the sole beneficiary of the sweet fragrance being selflessly given out by the flowers. Some tall trees which stood guard at night were eagerly waiting for their day’s duty of providing shelter to the mankind from the sweltering heat of the season.

I absorbed everything with great delight and moved to pluck flowers from two small plants in front of my house.  Something inside me told me to step cautiously and I looked down instinctively. What I saw appalled me and I stepped back. In front of me was a small brown kitten lying motionless with a trickle of blood coming out of its mouth. A passer-by on a motorcycle or car must have accidentally nipped its life in the bud.

 

I stood there looking at the soft toy like kitten which looked like a fallen flower.  My grief full to the brim was turned into tears when I saw a cat approaching the dead kitten. I moved away to a distance and watched the cat. It went closer to the kitten, licked it many times and sat touching its body. I could make out that the cat was its mother and observed both of them carefully.  It seemed as if some silent communication was going on between them. After a while, the cat started crying continuously as if to invoke the divine grace to bring its baby to life. It waited for some time and moved away still crying aloud.

The sad resigned gait of the cat was as if to say that it has done what it could and left the rest to the God Almighty.

Its silence conveyed many emotions and feelings. I sensed it saying   “I seek justice but am helpless; I wish to pour the contents of my broken heart but am speechless; I long to bring my precious little baby to its feet but lack the means; I want to put it to proper rest but lack the resources. Oh! God Almighty, I am putting my precious baby at your feet. Please take care of it”.

I kept looking at the kitten and its mother. A question came to my mind and I brought it out loudly as if addressing everything around me “ All the things in this Universe, including the human beings are the creation of the God Almighty. Then, why are the lives of helpless, speechless animals and other living things considered to be less precious than that of the human beings? Is it not the human being who created this differentiation?"