My preoccupations: the emphasis on decluttering is everywhere. When I try to do that, it turns into something else. For example, sorting out papers, I came upon Illustrated Weekly of India, 1959. I read it from cover to cover. It had a photo of Lady Mountbatten with her dog, looking very elegant. Jokes that didn't amuse me and on the last pages, pictures of newly weds. Where are they now I wondered. There was also an indignant review of some Colonel Kesri Singh's account of killing tigers and other wild animals. Apparently he knew his tigers well and talked about their personalities, brave, timid, circumspect but they all fell to his bullets. I didn't know that the tigers had personalities. and Why not? The magazine also had a picture of widely beaming Spanish ambassador with the tiger he had killed with the help of Maharaja of Rewa. I wonder if it was a white tiger. Looked like that. At least to me.
I decided to keep the old magazine, maybe that is why I saved it in the first place. It made me angry and sad. Once I met a Pakistani army officer who invited me to Sunderban so that I could witness tiger hunting. I turned down his invitation. I believe in truth and nonviolence and love all th wild animals dearly. Ask the racoon who feasts on tandoori chicken from my garbage can. But please don't tell my neighbors. They would hunt and eat tha pair of my mourning doves living in my hedge of Japanese yews.
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