Loving Family Of Four

Bringing home pets during testing times is perhaps the best one can do for children undergoing emotional strain. This mother did just that, bringing back many smiles into their lives

- Farzana Contractor

So now we bring you another lovely set of cats and cat people. Mum, Chintamani Bhattacharya, nee Belletty and her angelic daughter, Radha. And their two wild sons/ brothers, Chase and Ginger.

At the outset, if their kind of looks and their kind of names confuse you, allow me to enlighten. Chintamani Belletty, who everyone addresses as CM was born to Russian parents who took to Iskcon and shifted to Vrindavan in India, decades ago. That’s where CM was born and grew up. In totally Indian ways, embracing Hinduism. Yes, she gets by in Sanskrit, speaks fluent Hindi and is comfortable wearing saris. She is an artist, a versatile painter and a mum who will do anything for Radha, including bring cats home, when she was not sure she could manage to do so, given her circumstances.

But CM is a determined kind of woman; fierce and protective yet soft and yielding. So, when tragedy struck, two years ago, which snatched away her husband, Radha became her main focus of attention. Even as she herself grieved and tried to come to terms with the loss.

Radha and CM live in Panchgani in a cute, cosy cottage. Along with Chase and Ginger who they adopted from a pet lover, Kiran Tandon. Kiran was shifting to Poona and needed a home for two of the five cats that she had. And the Bellettys didn’t think twice before taking them in. “You know it had been barely a month since I lost my husband when I had taken Radha to a pet store in Poona to distract her. She was happy to see some budgerigars and fish and a little kitten, who she fell in love with. She begged me for one. Kiran’s offer was already there, so in a split second I decided it would be best for Radha, if I took home the Persian cats, who were then about nine months old,” says CM.