Summer in JNU

Its hot, and the mangoes are really disappointing this year, kind of pallid, or artificially ripened. Rain on and off is very cooling, but it affects the mangoes. The water melons are excellent though, and we are lucky to be able to afford them. The cuckoo is out early every morning, and so are our three kittens, who drive every one mad with their antics but still very adorable. We are going to block the two windows from which they come in and out, and then they will have to learn to evade the dogs and climb trees, and catch rats and birds like the other cats do. There is no point trying to domesticate them, they are wild Indian jungle cats, quite willful, and terribly intelligent. Their mother came with the house, she ambles in and out, and twice a year she literally litters. The father cat is a sweet fellow, who doesn't have much to do with all of it, except to greet his wife when she permits him. At  the moment, she is completely preoccupied with the kittens,  and since yesterday, she takes them out hunting at night. The dogs lurk about, and if they could they would kill them all, but the mother cat she is like a warrior with shining eyes who hurtles in their path, and they have to back and flee because there is something just terrifying about her when she explodes with rage that they are prowling around her territory. The most fearful enemy is the  large yellow tom cat, who last year leaped over all of us, and pierced the jugular vein of each of the three kittens born last year. That was the most tragic moment one can imagine, in a second, all the three kittens were dead. So this year, I hope the new trio will survive, little balls of fur each with a nature completely it's own. How lovely the world is in it's innocence and birth of new things.