Cat in the bonnet

There is a cat in my car's bonnet. Strange as it may sound, it is true. Right now, there is a as-colored cat resting comfortably in the bonnet of the car doing God-knows-what.
When our apartment watchman called me yesternight to let me know that there are 'meow' sounds coming from my car(Hyundai Santro Automatic), my first thought was that guy must be crazy. I know that he is old but never thought he will go senile and start hearing 'meow's from the car. I misunderstood it as coming from inside the car and started thinking when I closed all the windows. When I got down to the parking lot, thats when I realized the sound was actually coming from the bonnet of the car. When I heard it, I thought may be I am just hearing voices and it may not be a cat after-all.
So we brought a hand-torch and opened the bonnet and started looking for the cat. The search was in vain and after 10-15 minutes, I convinced myself that may be the cat is calling from elsewhere and we are just assuming it to be from the bonnet. I told the same to the watchman and came back up.
So when we decided to go to the Vandalur zoo today, my first nagging thought was what about the cat? I mean, no one has seen that cat but there seems to be a 'meow' sound coming from my car and either there is a cat or my car is becoming a cat slowly. While the AI possibilities of a car getting a cat's charecteristics are scary enough, I was thinking more of whether the car will start demanding other stuff. Then I got down again this morning and opened the bonnet. To my relief, I found an ash-colored cat sitting on the battery thinking how to proceed next.
So it was a bit of a relief for me to realize that my car is not turning into a cat, after-all. But then, the cat on seeing me opening the bonnet, instead of jumping out and legging it, jumped right back into the bonnet to its secret hiding place and let out a couple of 'meow's to re-assure us that its back in business. So, self and the watchman went through the rituals again and even managed to thow a cup of water in its direction.
Having decided to take the cat to the zoo, I was kind of scared that it might get into the machinery and either die or damage and both will be equally bad. I was not sure when started the car and driving. One of my wife's nephew assured us that he had a cat in his car's bonnet for 3 days before the cat decided to vacate it for bigger premises. So it is upto the cat to decide on moving out and probably we cannot do much in that direction. It made sense after going through the successive failures to get the cat ejected from the bonnet. So I decided to make a go for the zoo with the cat in the bonnet and here I am writing about it after a good day spent in the zoo looking at other cats in the cages and wishing that the one in my bonnet walks away.

மரணம்

நண்பர் ஒருவர் இந்த வாரம் மரணம் அடைந்தார். நல்ல மனிதர். சிறு வயது. சில நேரங்களில் வாழ்க்கை சற்றும் அர்த்தமற்று போய்விடுகிறது. பணம், சந்தோசங்கள், எல்லாம் இருந்தும் ஒரு நொடியில் எதுவும் பயனற்று போய் விடுகிறது.
'காதறுந்த ஊசியும் வாறது கடை தெருவுக்கே' என்பது மட்டுமே உண்மை. இது புரியாது எத்துனை சண்டைகள், எத்தனை கோபங்கள்.

Complete NewYorker

I have so many thing to write and not sure where to start. So will start with the latest.
I recently got the 'Complete NewYorker' collection DVDs through their online stores. This is just a collection of all NewYorker issues from 1925 till 2005. One thing that comes to mind is the amazing technology that has made it possible. Secondly, the kind of treasure trove this is.

After initial hiccups in installation (I run a Vista PC), I managed to get it installed yesterday and browsed a little through the indices. The entire collection is littered with articles by the who-who of modern English literature. W.H.Auden, Capote, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, James Thurber and so on.
I used to be a NewYorker subscriber when I lived in the States. One of the things I missed after returning back to settle in Chennai is the dose of the NewYorker articles now and then and I had to satisfy myself with the pieces of articles publised in the NewYorker website. Not anymore. I have not about 4100 back issues and its going to take a life time to just browse through them. I am excited.

On the other hand, I was wondering why no such effort exists to digitize our own palmscripts and some of the modern magazines of Tamil (say Ezhuthu, Manikodi etc). That will be worth the effort.