Pets are amazing indeed and the affection of your dog or the funny sleep of your cat will surely alleviate all your stress and bring up the smile that you badly needed. At times, pets are so shrewd that they leave us awestruck with their intelligence. Some of the videos I've seen in YouTube on such wonderful pets were mind blowing and I've embedded the top 3 here.
Feel like saying "What are you trying to say? Pets are cool... We know that and you don't have to tell us that!"? I'm not finished yet and in fact I'm yet to start the actual topic. :) As much animal lover as I am, I'm dumbfounded by the pet craze in US. People do love their pets in India and I'd say at least 30% of the Indian homes have pets of some sort but in US I'd say at least 75% homes have pets and the best part is that a huge portion of their fortune is spent in maintaining their pets. It's not uncommon to see a fat lady in a Wal-mart counter purchasing items for 100$, most of which would be pet care products and pet food. In fact, I've seen people who take a day off because their cat wasn't active in the morning or their dog is not eating properly. No exaggeration - I've seen them in person.
Why this difference and why so much importance to an animal when husbands/wives are divorced for silly reasons (snoring in the night for example)? Let me put in my thoughts on this... As usual put in all the disclaimers that relieve me from the clutches of generalization. It's purely my way of interpreting it and at times I might even be wrong. Humans are social animals and almost every man and woman need a companion and a society to survive. But the problem starts when it comes to drawing a line defining the personal limits and defining the term 'my space'. Everyone (or let's make it almost everyone) wants a kind, loving, caring, affectionate, trustworthy counterpart who never opposes his/her views and orders. When both the guy and the girl (let's forget about gays and lesbians for a second here) feel the same way, naturally things are bound to fall apart and the relationship breaks. The Indian society at least tries to answer this by stating that patience is one of the greatest virtues of a girl and it is important that a girl adjusts well with the new family she gets into. But when this is not defined, things are bound to go bad in the name of ego and liberty. The alternative to this never-ending quest for the ideal partner is replaced by the love for pets and the sight of a dog running to them at the snap of their fingers elates their soul and makes them feel they are God. With the loosely coupled society isolating them and pets giving them the happiness and company they need, they become indispensable family members and are given more or at least as much importance as the family members.
Wait a minute... Did I say in the beginning of the post that I didn't want to talk about philosophy and culture? Oops! I did it again... :D
3 comments:
dei watch this also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB660JuM9dE
i don't know whether its inadvertent or intentional, but you started with Tommy and ended in Indian culture :)
of course, the westerners are obsessed with their pets...they love them more than their kids and sometimes more than themselves...
reminds me of a scene from 'Johnny English' where the British Queen will be kept at gun point asking her to sign in a document...she will refuse...when the gun points at her dog, she will sign immediately :D
@SLN
It's half inadvertent and half intentional maaps... I was trying to talk about pet craze and in the end I couldn't avoid comparison with the Indian culture! :)
Btw, the scene from Johny English is too good! :))
@Srini
That was a good video!
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