Pugla Primate and Pooches

by Alan Lane
Have any of our ‘Indian Chai Stories’ readers/contributors had any other pets excepting for dogs?

My father had, besides Boko the Hoolock Gibbbon, two Slow Lorises – named Asti and Susti – if he had had another one he said that the third one would have been named 'lai-lai'! Dad had also had a leopard cub that had grown to perhaps three quarter size before he had to ship it to the Calcutta Zoo. Also, he had a mongoose, named as expected, Rikki, and a Black Sun Bear that was named Clementine. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of these animals. 

Clementine died from blood poisoning as she had been attacked by a leopard (there were many, many leopards in Kalline). Clementine climbed a tree at the burra bungalow, turned around, and as the leopard climbed after her, she swiped out with her claws and took nearly the whole face off the leopard. The leopard fell down and was in a very bad state and my father had to shoot it once the hullabaloo subsided in the bungalow.

My step-mother Christina, and Charlie as a chick

 Dad also had a Hill Mynah, named Wilbur, who was a very great mimic. Wilbur used to swear a lot in Hindi (naughty night chowkidar!) plus he had the sound of the chowidar clearing his throat absolutely perfect. Dad normally kept Wilbur in his big cage on the verandah, but he was moved to the bottle-khana when any lady guests came over for dinner, or indeed the local Padre!

“Boko” was rescued from the local bazaar by my father’s head bearer, ‘Michael’, where it had been tied up around the neck by a stall holder. My father, as an ‘honorary forest officer for NW Cachar’ confiscated the gibbon.Boko was allowed to ‘run free’ at the burra bungalow and was completely house trained, and he had the free run of the bungalow and the compound.

The Golden Spaniel, “Sandy” was my step-mother’s dog, and the dachshund  “Mattie” was my father’s one. The Hoolock Gibbon, “Boko”, was my father’s also

The photo shows Boko just about to pull Mattie’s tail, and then run like the wind up the nearest tree, where he would whoop away at Mattie, who being on short legs could not catch the mischievous ape. Boko had a typically inquisitive mind, and very much a chalaki badmash little fellow. 

On my father’s front verandah, there was a bowl of slightly over ripe fruit that was for Boko to help himself to, and another bowl with better fruit in located in the dining room. Boko used to see if we were looking at him and if not, he would run past the good fruit bowl, snatch  a banana, apple or papaya, and streak past us, out of bungalow verandah and up the nearest tree, where yet again he would whoop with joy, convinced that he had fooled us. 

Other days, when not in such a crazy mood, he would be found with the chokri mali weeding the lawn – looking at what the chokri was pulling up and doing the same. When he got bored with that he would tease the chokri by throwing some of the plucked weeds on her hair. Boko was never a vicious primate, never bit or scratched, but would often look at you in the eye and we wondered what the next crazy thing he was thinking about. 

Quite often, in the early evening before his bedtime, Boko would come and sit in your lap, cuddle up, and look at you with those dreamy loving eyes before he would go off to his small, always open door, cage, lying down and covering himself with a gunny bag. Some days, Boko would sit on the bungalow fence that was on the perimeter next to the road leading into the factory. Everyone knew him and sometimes would give him a ‘chini chumpa’ banana which he enjoyed. Sadly, Boko contracted polio and died a few months before my father left Assam in 1966 – which in retrospect was the best thing for him.

Mattie and Sandy did have a couple of puppies. If you can imagine a black coated spaniel on short legs, and having a long tail, then you would know what they looked like. One of the pups was taken by Cliff Hart, at that time Manager of Jellalpore TE in NW Cachar (next to Kallinecherra TE) and he named him Nobby. This little dog was an absolute character. The Jellalpore burra bungalow is situated on a teela, with a drive way going up to it. As it was situated on the top of the teela, a pathway had been cut at the front of the compound which wound round the side and eventually met the road at the bottom. 

As many of us know, goats had a preference for flowers and plants that one had around the compound. It was a daily occurrence for the goats to make their way up the side of the teela to the plants at the bungalow. Cliff’s bearer, or chowkidar, would try to huff the goats away, and on hearing this Nobby would take off on his short legs, running as fast as he could with his black spaniel ears flapping away, to chase the goats. 

Goats are very adept at climbing steep teelas, and could just run down the teela without any problem. Nobby, on the other hand, never learnt that running at full speed would get him to the teela edge pretty quickly, however, mini-spaniels on short legs don’t have much braking power. So over the teela he would go, rolling over and over until he reached the road below. He never seemed to hurt himself but would climb back via the road to the back of the bungalow, and turn up on the verandah, covered in dust and bits of vegetation, and a sheepish look on his face, He would throw himself down onto the floor, tongue hanging out, and give a satisfied sigh enough to say, “See, that showed them who’s boss on this teela!” Of course the same thing would happen again the next day when the goats were out on the scrounge.

 This is a photo that I had taken from the edge of the burra bungalow compound at Jellapore TE (NW Cachar), so you can get an idea of the lay out where Nobby used to chase the goats.

The second pup, named Pinto, exactly the same in appearance, was taken by Dave Lamont, who had been at Kalline TE, but moved to Bhubandhar TE in Cachar before my father arrived at Kalline. Dave Lamont (who I still correspond with in Australia) took his little spaniel on short legs to Bhootechang TE on the North Bank.

My father had rescued a hornbill chick from the local bazaar in Kalain, Cachar, and it grew to a full adult. It was named “Charlie” and had full freedom to fly into the jungles of the Mikir Hills, and fly to and fro to the burra bungalow at Kalline TE. 

Charlie, when he grew up, used to spend most of his day in the surrounding jungle, but always came home at chota hazri time for his breakfast – usually a couple of bananas. He always came home to roost each night at the burra bungalow, and his perch was located in the gussel-kamra in the third bedroom (second guest room). Anyway, when I was staying with my father at Christmas 1964, I was ensconced in the first guest bedroom. Cliff Hart, from Jellapore, came over for dinner, but as the evening wore on it got too late for Cliff to return to his garden – the route back was via Craigpark, and Kallinecherra to Jellalpore. In the cold weather there was always a herd of elephants on this road so it was quite frightful to traverse. 

 Anyway, I digress.  

After dinner, Cliff had need to go to the toilet and so as it was dark he did not bother to put the light on. Just as Cliff was having a wee, Charlie had a snap at Cliff’s ‘appendage’ which of course gave Cliff an almighty fright. He came out of the bathroom in a state of shock. Luckily Charlie had missed his aim, but father said that maybe Charlie thought that he was getting another banana for evening meal!

Charlie found a mate before my father retired, and he - my father - was very pleased. Eventually Charlie did not return to the bungalow, although my father used to see him - or her perhaps? - flying around at the far end of the tea estate. 

Editor's note: 'Susti' is a Hindi word for indulgent lethargy and 'lai-lai' (spelt more often as 'lahe lahe' these days ) is the Assamese way of saying the same thing, or, 'taking it easy, nice and slow'.

 Meet the writer:

Alan Lane, a 'cha ka baba', was born in Bombay. His contribution to Indian Chai Stories goes beyond the written word: he keeps a large number of people all over the world connected with their roots in India. In his own words, 'My wife and I still have lots of connections with India and we are, as you may well say, ‘Indophiles’.' Alan and Jackie Lane live in the UK; they left India a little over fifty years ago. Read the story of this cha ka baba's return to the tea gardens of Assam as a Crossley engineer here: Indian Chai Histories.  You will find more stories by Alan here. 

 

Is this your first visit to this page?  
In February 2018, I started 'Indian Chai Stories' because I believe one of the best things about tea life is story-telling. The most improbable things happen in tea. 

The raconteur was a stock character in tea - at the club, at your breakfast table, at a dinner party - everywhere. It all changed as people grew older, retired or went away. One rarely meets a storyteller in the gardens these days. 

You will meet many of them online at 'Indian Chai Stories'. 

 
Tea planters and their families are generous souls, and they have shared their stories for the sheer joy of the retelling!! Read stories by the chai ka saabs, memsaabs, 'baba and baby log' here. 

 

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- Gowri Mohanakrishnan