Animal Stories - Yemen

Collecting Our Bags From the Airport

Hootoksi Tyabji, Sana'a, 1992

"Shamlan" and "Hadda" were the brand names of the most popular mineral water sold in Yemen. When you wanted to buy some, you didn't ask for bottled water, you asked for Shamlan or Hadda.

We were at Sana’a airport, returning from one of our holidays, waiting at the baggage carousel for our bags and getting more impatient with each passing minute! Folks in the queue long after us were walking out with their bags, where on earth were ours? Round and round, round and round, went one fancy piece following another and then there among all that expensive luggage was a battered Shamlan box with a live goat tied up in it! The animal looked none the worse for wear and he let out a plaintive bleat and was soon claimed by a futah-clad, gun toting, qat-chewing Yemeni who walked through customs with his baggage and a goat trussed up in a battered Shamlan box!

 Zubin the Cat

Hootoksi Tyabji, Sana'a 1990

A colleague at work found this beautiful steely grey kitten crouching under a car in the YALI compound. She showed it to me and of course I could not resist taking it home where I introduced it to Chooki, our fluffy old dog, who immediately accepted the new addition to our family.

The kitten was well fed but the first evening home was chaotic! It was into everything, pulling things down, exploring, unraveling, scratching, meowing, and carrying on! To calm my fast fraying nerves, I put on a Mozart symphony with Zubin Mehta conducting. The kitten liked it and immediately relaxed and fell asleep in my lap. So, he was christened "Zubin."

Zubin settled in with our family very easily but one day I came home from work to find he had been out for much longer than usual. I waited till around 10 pm and then decided to go out and look for him.

Our house was in the Hadda area and opposite us lived one of the President's assistants. As a result, security on our street was excellent and we were familiar with the armed guards whom we greeted off and on. That night I did not even notice them as I was intent on finding Zubin and went around the streets shouting Zubin! Zubin! Zubin! hoping to see him somewhere; but instead of the cat I noticed the guards and every other person on the street laughing and snickering while they seemed to glance furtively in my direction. I began to feel most uncomfortable and just as I was considering throwing something at someone, I heard a meow and there was Zubin strolling along without a care in the world!

The next day at work I related this saga to a Yemeni friend who laughed out loud when she heard I was out on the street alone and at night calling for Zubin!

Zubi in Arabic means -- penis.

OUCH!