New additions to our family!

Before you guys faint and fall thinking that I have conceived twins again, please read on:

Abbas is extremely passionate about pets. When he left Kolkata, he gave away his pets with a heavy heart and we never thought of getting pets again as we ourselves have been moving places. Most of the time there is no one at home over the week and having pets at home was a remote thought.

Ever since I brought the sparrow nest and bird feeder home, Abbas’s subsided passion for pets awoke with full force. There was no way we could get a pet dog coz then we would have had to look for pet day care and I would have had to pick them up along with Mantam. Abbas expressed his desire to get birds home like a kid demanding candy. Immediate reaction of mine was to say ‘No’. When he asked me to give him logical reasons as to why I am not in favour of this prospect, I said that I would not be able to see the birds caged and that I would prefer having a dog at home over caged birds. (Clearly knowing that having a dog at this point was impractical) With his track record, Abbas has mastered the knack of converting my ‘No’ to ‘yes’. He has an uncanny way of dealing with me and before I know it, i would have given in.

This began almost a month ago when the guy woke up on a Saturday morning earlier than usual and said ‘Chalo Seemu. Let’s go to Shivajinagar to get birds’ and I said ‘Have you lost it completely?’ After a few minutes, I saw myself getting ready to go along with him. I was more interested in going to Russell Market and praying that Abbas won’t get the bird of his choice. So, the five of us including Ma set off. We visited the pet shop and were stunned to learn the price of birds. A few pair of birds cost ten times more than what they cost in Kolkata. We returned home astounded. Before I could cheer secretly for my prayers had been answered, Abbas said ‘I’m gonna get birds and have them breed, I’ll start a side business!’ My jinx had just boomeranged on me.

And his hunt for wholesale bird sellers began. Weekends would see him on call gathering information about variety of birds, prices, sellers, comparing prices, visiting places, so on and so forth. The weekend when I had Baking class at home, he vanished all of a sudden. He came back home at around 5 in the evening with a ‘jhoola hua’ face. You know why? He had finally zeroed in on on the birds at a very low price from a person who does the business at his own home. But unfortunately, he didn’t have a cage for Abbas to get the birds. That person himself took Abbas to several pet stores in the vicinity to buy a cage but unfortunately / fortunately, he found no cage and had to return home empty handed after coming so close. Later when Abbas called the same guy, he did not respond well and said that the birds were already sold.

Abbas found another contact Mr. N and got all the details over phone. On May 1^st, as it was off for all of us, we went out for monthly grocery shopping. Abbas was hurrying to get done with the shopping coz he had fixed an appointment with N. When we left the mall, Abbas gave N a call just to confirm, and the guy said that he won’t be available till evening and asked to come some other day. Once again Abbas was thwarted and declared that his long time desire remains unfulfilled as both his mom and wife are not willing to get it. His melancholy had some effect on me…

Next day being our anniversary (I published the anniversary post with some delay), we did not have any plans to celebrate it and it was just another regular working day for us. When Abbas went to take bath in the morning, I quickly surfed his mobile to get N’s cell number from Call History. I called this guy from office. He said that he was in bank and asked to call after 10 mins. When I called next, his phone was switched off. I kept on calling at regular intervals and finally got through by noon. I asked him if I could come to see the birds at 6 in the evening. He agreed and asked me to come near a mall in that area and give him a call and he would direct me how to reach his place.

In the evening, after I left office, I went straight to Mantam’s day care and it was actually dance class day for them. But I had doubts as to whether I’ll be able to reach back in time to pick them up. So I picked them up and three of us hopped into an auto and headed towards that mall. Just when we were 2 signals away from the mall, I called N and the guy didn’t pick up the call. I called at least 20 times within 5 minutes but to no avail. We had travelled quite far and I didn’t want to return. I instructed the auto driver to take us to Shivajinagar and requested him to drop us back home. To my fortune, the autodriver was an empathetic guy. On the way I screeched at the sight of a pet shop just as we reached Shivajinagar.

We went in. I chose the birds and a cage. They suggested a pot for breeding, some imported grain called Birdigree or something and multi vitamin drops. I knew I paid a bomb but I wanted to see a happy Abbas at the end of the day. Mantam were scared to get into the auto looking at the birds. But later on, they began conversing with them. Mannu named them Teddy Bear 🙄

Instead of being surprised, Abbas was shocked to see the birds when he came home. First thing he asked me was how much I spent in all. He liked the birds but he found the cage too small. Also according to him, they had got a nice’ bakri’ in me and sold all hi-fi products. This Saturday, we went to the shop again to exchange the cage and Birdigree for a bigger cage, another pair of birds, an extra pot for breeding. Abbas has named them Potla, Potli, Ghotla and Ghotli.

Potla and Potli are a mix of Yellow and Blue, while Ghotla and Ghotli are Blue and White. We are in love with them. We have kept the cage in the balcony adjacent to our bedroom. I wake up to their squeaking noise in the morning even if I shut the alarm off 😀

Here I present to you, new additions to our family:

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