Ka Miaw
This story is based on a Khasi folk tale called How the Cat came to live with Man. I discovered this short story in a book called Folk-Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K.U. Rafy during my stay in Nongriat, a village in the East Khasi hill district of Meghalaya.
She informs, in the foreword, that there are several versions of these Khasi folk tales in India.
“Of some of the stories there are several versions current in the country,—sometimes conflicting versions,—but this in no way diminishes their charm. In such cases I have selected the version which appeared to me the most unique and graceful, and seemed to throw the truest light on the habits and the character of this genial and interesting Hill race.”
This photo story is my imagined retelling of one of the stories in the book - How the Cat came to live with Man – a folk tale about a cat called Ka Miaw, who lives in the jungle with her brother and king of the jungle, the tiger.
The cat runs away from the jungle as she is ill-treated by the tiger and left to scavenge for food while the tiger enjoys the finest of foods for himself. Ka Miaw eventually finds comfort by catching frogs and mice and purring to the touch of little children.
And so the cat ran away into the woods because the fury of the chasing tiger blinded her. After a long time, the tiger, feeling stupid for not catching up to the cat, gave up the chase and went back home.
The cat ran for her life regardless, not realizing that she had left the tiger far behind. She ran for millions of years from something that was not chasing her.
And she ran, and she ran till she reached a bridge across a stream made of tangled roots of a tree. She made sure she was well-hidden as she was not sure what this place was or who this creature sitting across the river was. She bounced from rocks, jumped off hanging tree branches, and slipped on roots green with rainy moss.
She recognized the dog, though, and jumpy as she was, tripped and fell down a pit when the dog got up suddenly as if he had just smelled food.
She fell into a dark tunnel that smelled like wet mud and dry leaves. The fall was not as bad as she thought it would be, and it slowly turned into a breezy glide in the darkness. She came to rest with a soft thud against the warm and wet hands of Alba, a girl of nine who, funnily enough, was digging a tunnel to provide safe passage to estranged cats like herself.
"Welcome to the world, Ka Miaw," said Alba when she spotted the scared little cat.
Ka Miaw snuggled next to Alba and wondered if this is what a sweet dream feels like.
She eventually grows fond of the dog too.
One day, Ka Miaw jumped into the pigsty out of curiosity and almost became an example of a popular adage about cats and their curiosity. The pigs were alright with humans, but a cat's presence caused a ruckus inside the sty. Alba’s friend waited for Ka Miaw to get out of the sty because she had no idea how to rescue a cat from a bunch of mad, snorting pigs.
There is immense sadness after Ka Miaw falls into the pigsty and vanishes. A lot of time is spent deliberating on how Ka Miaw can be rescued.
Over a lunch meeting, presided by no one, in particular, it is decided that the visiting English lepidopterist should be called in for an expert opinion. “Lepidopterist
is a moth expert. How will he rescue a cat?” someone objects. The objection quickly dies down as tasty food is served on the table. The
lepidopterist welcomed this distraction because his moth research has hit a wall, and so he gives up on the moths to search for the missing cat.
The Lepidopterist eventually discovers that the cat fell into the pigsty on purpose so she could escape back to her world and bring her brother, the tiger, the fireband that he had ordered for. For fear of the moths, the Lepidopterist never reveals this to Alba and her friends. He wants to continue looking for the missing cat.