Kuttush goes to Varanasi: A Baby Novel (Chapter I)

KUTTUSH GOES TO VARANASI

For Sheroo, Candy, Phunti, Kuttush, Khushi, Sugar, Kaloo, Julie

And

The Madcap Mimie

CHAPTER ONE

HOW KUTTUSH GOT A PLACE IN THE FAMILY HOLIDAY PLAN

            Something exciting was up and Kuttush could smell it in the air. Smelling excitement is not exactly something that you or I can do….but for Kuttush, it was second nature. You see Kuttush is a Labrador Retriever and therefore he is an expert in this matter. He can smell everything, from ‘nice’ smells like those from roses, Mom’s perfume & Dad’s aftershave , to ‘great’ smells like that of the doggy bone in the steel almirah and of course ‘dirty’ smells like the ones which come out from Teesta’s sneakers after she has played in the sun for two hours straight. He can even smell things which we cannot imagine as having a smell at all, like ‘happiness’, ‘sadness’ or ‘excitement’; yes and even ‘fun’ and ‘anger’!

            So Kuttush smelt the excitement and if you or I too could have smelt it, it would have been something like the whiff of perfume from dad’s big car mixed with a bit of pizza topping. Kuttush, of course did not care much for the car perfume bit; though he adored pizza toppings, specially the ones with plenty of chicken tikka. And he was right about the excitement …….! 
        Something was afoot……… Moms had come back early from work on Saturday…..Dads having put the camera batteries to charge , had brought down those big suitcases from the overhead closet and was now carefully wiping the dust from them. But Kuttush could not understand at first what all this excitement was about. It was only when Teesta began prancing all over the house with her favourite pink bag strapped to her back singing ‘Chutti Chutti Garam Garam Rootti’!,  that he realised, ‘Oh ho, these people are going on a holiday……!!!’ (you see, Teesta , Moms & Dads spoke this language called ‘Bangla’  where a ‘Roti’ (chapatti) was called ‘Rooti’ which Teesta had altered slightly to “rootti’ for the sake of rhyming it with ‘Chutti’ (holiday) and she loved singing this ditty; though of course, as far as Kuttush was concerned , as long as the roti  was ‘garam’ (hot) and ‘moti’ (thick), he did not bother whether it was ‘roti’ or ‘rooti’ or ‘rootti’). However, he did bother over the fact that they were going on a holiday because he was not so sure whether they planned to take him along. Last time when they had gone on a holiday to some place called ‘Rajasthan’, they had left him at home and he had been mighty miffed over it. The house had smelt of ‘loneliness’ and Kuttush did not like this smell at all, it was like the smell of a month old chicken piece forgotten in the back of the refrigerator and he definitely did not care for it. 
     However, since no one seemed interested in letting him know whether he was to go along or not, he decided that some subtle suggestions from his side were very much in order. So he picked his leash off the hook and carried it to the garage where Dads was now packing his fishing rod. He sat down on his haunches and gazed at Dads with a doleful ‘poor poor doggy’ expression that he knew would definitely win him a window ticket in their holiday plan. And he was right. Dads was soon cajoling Moms, ‘Come, Dew, (Moms was also known as Dew) lets take Kuttush along.’ 
        But convincing Moms was not an easy task. She was totally immune to all subtle suggestions from Kuttush including his special ‘poor poor doggy’ expression. She said firmly ‘Absolutely no! Last time when we took him, he had eaten up all the chicken cutlets in the train’s pantry car.’ ‘‘But they hadn’t minded at all, Dew. Remember how those pantry car boys themselves had packed us some more cutlets to take home later!’ Dad persisted. But Moms appeared very firm. When she repeated another very very grim sounding ‘NO!’, Kuttush understood that his ‘subtle’ methods had failed and it was time to apply more radical means. 
       So he sidled up to Moms, stood up on his hind legs, placed his right paw on her elbow, and laying his head against her side looked up at her through one eye squinting beneath hooded lids. Now no one has ever been able to resist this method of Kuttush’s till date and Moms was no exception. A glaze came over her eyes and the grim frowns on her forehead dissolved. A faint fragrance of what you or I would have called ‘vanilla’ floated in the air. Kuttush knew that it was ‘affection’ and that it meant Moms had consented. Soon her softly uttered ‘Ok ok you can come along, but no sneaking off with pantry chicken again!’ was lost somewhere under the furious licking of her face by Kuttush and the din created by Teesta and Dads shouting ‘Yippee, yippee, yippeeeeee.. !!!!!’  

    And so that was how Kuttush managed to get a place on the Family Holiday Plan!

PS :  Watch this space for Chapter II releasing next weekend.