I must be a writer of a unique breed. On the last day of our Workshop on the Writing Strand, Mr.Phub Dorji, REC, asked us, the teacher-participants, if we would like to write a story based on the discussions we had had earlier on The Short Story & Story Writing then, or prefer to take it as a home assignment. Most of us expressed the view that it would be better to do it at home. The last date of submission of the stories was thereby fixed on the 12^th of February, 2016.

Back home in Kolkata, I wanted to make the most of the last few days at my disposal by lazing around and could think of the assignment only after coming back to Tshimalakha. It was the 11^th of this month! Thank God as the first draft I made of a story germinating in my mind for a couple of weeks, took off like you wouldn’t believe it! Of course, I based it on the growing problem of the cat population at my ancestral home that is being some sort of a menace! 

After I was done with the story, I decided to post it on facebook and the comments were favourable, especially the one from our Principal, Mr. Namgay Wangchuk. Regarding the story, I just got stuck at one point not being able the recollect the name of the fish available in the rivers of this country. As I couldn’t recollect the name –The Trout- I left it at the T! Luckily for me, while sending it to Mr. Phub, I turned it into Tuna (as if Am Kunzang was cooking the tinned fish that day)!

But the biggest surprise was to come towards the end when I changed the title of the story from “Noble Nim” to “Ignoble Nim?’. I deliberately put the interrogation mark at the end. I was hoping to sway the reader’s sympathy in favour of the protagonist of the story, though I had a completely different notion of him at the start of the story!

Ignoble Nim?

Agay Nim Tshering, an eye-sore to some, died with a contented look on his face one cold morning in December, surrounded by his pet cats. Nothing, let me stress on the word nothing, could come between his cats and him till his last breath!

Nim Tshering was a loner, besides being a widower. Never the obliging type, in his early sixties, the childless man decided to have two pet cats at the suggestion of a close relative. Things were not the same after the pair of a spotless white cat with its majestic tail, agay fondly named it Kitu later, and the yellowish male with sea-green eyes, was brought to him. It was a steady pair and agay Nim took an instant liking to them. He used to do everything, starting from feeding them to fetching them back to their place under, but most often on his bed, before calling it a day. His joy therefore, knew no bounds the day his pussy delivered a litter of six!  That was the beginning.  Soon his household was teeming with cats of all shapes, sizes and colours, numbering over 30, 32 to be exact! 

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