Polly made us jolly

Did you ever want to possess a pet parrot as a child? Did you also imagine it perched on your back, in the way that Long John Silver’s macaw does in Treasure Island, while you took it everywhere right under the noses of your envious friends and foes? What would one have called it?

‘ Polly Umrigar’ was one of the monikers (after the apro cricketing legend who was still active then) your columnist considered and had to reject (he being dad’s friend).

Old faithful retainer Ramji suggested ‘Hiraman’ , which was too oldfashioned . The project parakeet finally fell through due to lack of parental permission (‘ Too cruel: it’s meant to fly free; think of psittacosis!’), although we were all ready to adopt ‘Totes’ (from ‘Tota’ ) rescued from the local alley cat.
Perhaps you dug dogs, or worse, cats; or as Manohar did horses! Whatever the animal or bird (but not vegetable or mineral ) of your choice, it’s the affinity or the extravagant bond that humans across all cultures and ages cultivate with pets which makes them special.

The anthropologist Pat Shipman goes so far as to say that the animals made us human. She means this not in a metaphorical way (as in giving us lessons in loyalty or unquestioning love) but in a control freaky way, which allowed one group of primates to turn into modern humans precisely because of their own ability to observe and control the behaviour of other animals. She calls it reciprocal domestication.

Anthropologist Barbara King concurs with this view in her collection of essays, Where the Wild Things Are Now. It examines ways in which domesticating animals may have shaped human beings as much as the domesticated animals themselves.

King’s Being with Animals explores the implications of our ‘species-wide obsession with animals’ , starting from prehistoric cave art and classics like The Panchatantra and Wind in the Willows to modern children’s books and sports mascots including Shera, the Royal Bengal Tiger representing the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

The myriad ways in which myths and religious parables and literature rely on animal imagery seem to indicate that we have always thought and felt through animals, she writes.

Asimilar connection is sought to be maintained by the medieval idea of Scala Naturae or ladder of nature, often translated as Great Chain of Being. With apologies to 3 Idiots, Aall is One!