THE MANY LIVES OF
THE
CAT
Cats, it seems, have quietly found their way into countless stories and sayings. Let’s paws and retell a few…
In English the saying goes, ‘when the cat is away, the mice will play.’ In Kannada, the proverb states bekku kan muchkondu haalu kudidare jagattige gothagalva which translates to, ‘If the cat closes its eyes and drinks the milk, it thinks no one can see it.’ In Hindi, they say, meri billi, mujhee se miyaun? The list goes on.
Across various Indian languages, the cat appears in witty and ironic ways to reflect on society—to teach a moral, to impart advice and to hold the mirror up and reflect.
The late art historian B. N. Goswamy, in his book The Indian Cat, wrote of countless stories and works of art that cast cats as both heroes and villains.
They reappear frequently—triumphant thieves, mischievous tricksters, sometimes fiery presences charged with social critique. For long, our furry friends lingered at the edge of South Asian art; at the meowseum, their time has finally come to take centrestage.