Whisker Campaign

Publisher: Viking

Price: Rs 499

Pages: 304

Book: The Wildings

Author: Nilanjana Roy

Publisher: Aleph

Pages: 311

Price: Rs 595

Pages: 311

Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s latest offering,ostensibly for children but clearly also for older readers,is a gentle critique of modern living and corporate greed. Employing the familiar trope of using animals to provide a commentary on human life,Rabbit Rap has as its central characters that most non-threatening species of all,the bunny.

It is the “post-predatorial age”,ushered in by the unintended but fortunate aftermath of the pesticide UB-Next,which,along with killing crop-destroying weevils,also kills all furry carnivores. Coupled with Sky Fry,a laser-guided kill-system introduced by fish farmers in their war against birds who haven’t given up their taste for fish,the world suddenly becomes a far safer and happier place for rabbits. Safety means freedom,progress and technological advancement — and,consequently,very human factionalism: the rabbit world finds itself divided into two groups,the Fat Rabbits Urging Modern Perspectives (FRUMP),who are in favour of the Aboveground Living Trend (ALT; why live in underground warrens when the predators have all been despatched and there are New Era Rabbit Dens [NERD to inhabit?),and the old-fashioned Old Generation Rabbit Elders (OGRE),who disapprove of the changing rabbit lifestyle.

Two rabbits soon become representatives of each side: Rabbit Hab,chairman of the Lapin Alliance and owner of the largest farm of all,who sees in the FRUMP lifestyle the future of all rabbit-kind; and Hab’s bête noire Gran-Bunny-Ma,a member of his own family and the canniest of the OGREs,whose sole purpose is to thwart Hab’s ambitions.

More allegory than fairy tale,Rabbit Rap is closer to George Orwell’s Animal Farm than it is to Richard Adams’ Watership Down,although it manages to combine elements of both. Rabbit Hab’s suspicious,dictatorial nature and wholehearted acceptance of technology — even nuclear devices guaranteed to play havoc with crops and fur alike — echoes the hubris of the pre-Fukushima world,and the perils of an ALT lifestyle evokes the dangers of any rapid urbanisation: “As the entire repertoire of rabbit feelings and emotions went into free fall,the sanctity of family was the first to be breached…. Strife and discord would no longer be the exclusive domain of the predator society.” But the mellow tone,charming prose and subtle humour,all of which is propped up by Michelle Farooqi’s lively illustrations,make sure the message is delivered without any need for preaching,or patronising.

And the insanely comical cast of characters,all of whom possess wildly imaginative names,with personalities to match — Pillow-Pants Sud the gossipmonger; Pot-Heady Matt the poet and rapper,to whom goes the credit of having coined the rebel anthem “Rabbit Rap”; Missy Give-n-Take the femme fatale; Mama’s-Boy Big,local delinquent; Rotor-Head Dat,Skiddy-Bum Bab,Missy Treacle-Tail Tib,Shag-Head Tad,all of the delinquent NERD-bred gang; and Freddy Ace-of-Spades,whose traumatic childhood memory featuring a few cakes and puddings lead to his falling into the wrong company — keeps one diverted throughout. But Gran-Bunny-Ma,politician to the core,is the only rabbit capable of leading an army and countering Rabbit Hab’s plans to use harmful radioactive devices,she can be — and is — as villainous and self-centred,albeit smarter,than the belligerent,blustering Hab.

While Rabbit Rap is an amusing read,and Farooqi’s language deceptively simple,adult readers would get the allegory,but might find it skating the surface. But Michelle Farooqi’s drawings stay with you longer — you’ll be left chuckling at a scowling Gran-Bunny-Ma in oversized knickers for days afterwards.

The animal kingdom has never been so popular since James Herriot and Gerald Durrell: yet another book recounts the adventures of yet another furry species. Nilanjana Roy’s The Wildings is the story of a group of independent,gutsy felines living in the lanes,alleys and the dargah of Nizamuddin,complete with their laws,traditions and (uneasy) truces,who one day face the most dire of all dangers.

Miao (the surprising Siamese — surprising because Siamese cats are too valuable to be let loose in the “wild”),Katar,Hulo,Beraal,Southpaw the kitten,Qawwali,Abol,Tabol and sundry other cats have their normal everyday routine interrupted rudely by the very loud musings of a strange cat who is clearly a “Sender” — a cat who can let her mind wander farther than a normal cat,and link with other distant felines through the near-telepathic “whisker link” that cats use to communicate. Furious debates about the advisability of sharing space with a cat this powerful ensue,till the astounded Nizamuddin cats realise that the Sender isn’t,after all,a giant monster but a tiny orange kitten named Mara,who is prone to tantrums and is far more preoccupied with playing with her ball and toy mouse than saving the world. But save the world is exactly what she is called upon to do one day when her elders find themselves facing their biggest threat in living memory,which threatens not only their lives,but also that of all living beings around.

Any cat lover will confess to an abiding curiosity about where their feline companions go on their nightly — or even daytime — wanderings,and what it must be to “see” the world through their eyes,paws and whiskers. Roy offers the chance to do just that,although she anthropomorphises the feline world too much. Here,she is at the tail end of a line of more illustrious writers: Paul Gallico,for instance,especially in his touching,heart-breaking Jennie,and Neil Gaiman in his unsettling “Dream of a Thousand Cats” in Sandman 3 —and Gaiman’s influence on Roy comes through clearly now and then. But Roy’s “wildings” are too human in their thoughts,their laws,their conclaves,too identifiable with to be alien enough,strangely so when you remember that the author herself is a known cat-lover. Cat people will love Prabha Mallya’s lovely illustrations and laugh in amused recognition at the descriptions of Mara’s frolics and Southpaw’s reckless curiosity; but we also know that almost all the laws of the Nizamuddin cats do not exist,and that the line between “inside” and “outside” cats is often blurred,especially in cities like ours.

The Wildings is a smooth read — Roy is a competent enough writer,and gives us some memorable characters: Kirri the mongoose,and Ozymandias and Rani the tigers,formerly of the Ranthambore forest and now caged in a Delhi zoo,are the best among them. In fact,little Mara’s unlikely friendship with the great Ozzy,and the tigers’ despair at the ruthless uprooting from their home into a world not their own make for the best-written,most touching parts of the book. Among the cats,it is the young “queen” Beraal and the aggressive,battered tom Hulo (“beraal” in Bengali means,quite literally,cat,and “hulo” tomcat!) who ring the truest; we have all known,and sometimes shared our homes with,sleek young hunters and battle-scarred,scruffy hulos. The friendly,naughty,utterly adorable Mara,of course,is the best-sketched character of them all,although her lack of natural kitten curiosity about the great outdoors is puzzling.

One suspects that it is us cat people among the “Bigfeet” who will enjoy The Wildings more,although the story,with its intrigues,dangers and breathless climax might appeal to others. Just remember to read it as one author’s very human vision of a cat community,and not as the gospel truth on the lives of outdoor cats.