Prashant does a volte face!

Prashant: 20 dogs poisoned in nerul
Me(having worked with Prashant in the same cabin for over a year typed out a sympathetic): "oh! thts bad na?"
Prashant: arrey only 20 were poisoned
me (confused now) : u wanted more to be poisoned?
Prashant: yeah some 50-60
me: lol...ok..
Prashant: yeah re...these dog lovers are bloody fools...they don't feel the pain, but I do
me: you were a dog lover once, if I'm not mistaken
Prashant: noooo, i was never except the fact that i loved my dog but she died long back. These dogs don't allow me to roam in the garden in the night. They bark at me all the time... they also chase my gaadi... And they have absolutely no sense of family planning!! Every bitch in my building has loads of puppies and I hate them. That dog, whose XXXX (this is what he typed) was diseased, I got him operated. But that fucker is now behind every bitch in my building and has no job other than fathering loads of kids.

So there.

Now why was I surprised?

Sometime around last year I was shooting a video fiction series and needed a live mouse for one of the episodes. Calling up the usual suspects did not yield results other than : "Are you ok?" to "You'll get them in any gutter in Bombay" and "go to the BMC office. There are more rats there than all over the city."

In a flash of brilliance, I remembered Prashant, my ex-Indian Express colleague, animal lover and certified mad hatter. So I called him.

Me: Prash I want a rat
Prash: ok... so get one
Me: I thought you would have them by the dozens since you go around saving them every second day.
Prash: ok...what kind of rat do you want?
Me: a small black rat
Prash: eeeeks... don't ever talk about black rats!!!
Me: what? why? what?
Prash: why don't you want a white one? White ones are better!
Me: Stop being a racist!!
Prash: Arrey I'm telling you...these black rats!! They are all namak harams!
Me: Eh??
Prash: you don't know... I had rescued that black mouse remember?? The one who was dying on the road?
Me: yes (how could I forget. He had roused an entire edit meeting seeking help for this particular mouse who was dying on the road near VT)
Prash: ya...so that fellow... i rescued him ok... i took him to the vet got him fit and fine and took him home. Imagine I took him home even though there was parental disapproval. I went against my parents for him... and put him safely in my table drawer. And guess what I see the next day!! He has eaten up all my notes!!! (Prashant was studying for his UPSC exams)Gaddar!! I saved him and he ate up my notes!!
Me: eh...ok... I think we are digressing...
Prash: no... listen... so you know what I did to him??
Me: err...no
Prash: I cleared out another drawer. I cut out pieces of cello tape and arranged them in the drawer face up. And then...I put that fellow in it!! And closed the drawer. And then when he was sufficiently entangled and all stuck up in the cello tape, I picked him up and threw him in the dustbin...

(I sincerely hope no animal activists read my blog.)