Tales from the Walauwa

by Cat O' Logge

Just when a cat thought he could lead a decent life till the next football world cup, someone has to switch the idiot box to cricket. Mother of the house who appeared to be aloof when it came to football is the biggest culprit here.

No longer does she go to the kitchen to choose a hala for dinner, Magilin has to bring some in her palm and with her eyes on the telly Hamunona will say yes we shall cook nadu hal today. But Magilin will stammer out that hamunona this isn't nadu hal, but sooduru samba.

Ah, yes yes, that would do, and isn't Mahela a marvel? Back in the kitchen Leela will eagerly await the return of Magilin who will bring back the news of keeyak gahalada? Even Pala when he came into the kitchen for his mid-morning tea condescended to grunt when Magilin asked him did Pala ayya know that our players are doing well?

Then he proceeded to tell that now those awful little boys down the road will do nothing at night, but light firecrackers till dawn, keeping awake every dog and donkey in the vicinity.

Awful boys

I recently got to know a cat belonging to one of those 'awful little boys' and since we cats are not as jealous of other cats as dogs are of other dogs, we tend to get on pretty well and he told me that the little boy in the house he lives in appears to take much delight and uncontrollable pleasure in (this cat speaks in a rather pedantic language you see) in creating trouble for the gardener in the walauwa.

A little while later there was some commotion in the kitchen because mother of the house had been heard screaming from where she was seated watching the telly. Leela immediately dropped the bowl she was holding (for once it was plastic, otherwise there would have been some shouting in the kitchen too) and raced to the living room. Once there Leela heaved a sigh of relief because mother of the house was only making some noise about some record Mahela and Sangakkara seemed to have broken.

Cricket news

Even Rudolphus, the silly brute had woken up to see what all the noise was about. Leela was leaning against a wall watching all the cheering and jollying and I could see Magilin too rushing into the living room wiping her wet hands on her flowered cheeththaya.

And then as if she had never known anything about a cricket match today, as if she had never taken back little snippets of cricket news to the kitchen, she proceeded to ask hamunona what had happened.

I, the intelligent cat, could see that Magilin couldn't really understand the explanation mother of the house gave her (on second thoughts, I don't think that mother of the house knew what she was telling either). However the whole scenario proceeded to jollify the mood of the walauwa for the rest of the day. And yes, those little boys did light their firecrackers at night.

And although I don't quite understand all these things that humans can do running around on large grounds (if they are not chasing each other for something, they throw and hit it, goodness knows why), if it can keep everyone laughing and smiling, who am I to complain ha?