Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar

Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book is about the lives of two kittens adopted by a foreigner in China. One female, Tofu, from the streets and the other a male, Soyabean, is adopted from a litter of kittens of a cat that is living with an old man and old woman. The old woman has a son whom the cats do not like as he likes to torture them. Both of them live a protected life in the foreigner's house. It is a world of difference from the one that they lived in their mother's place.

The brother of Tofu from the streets visits them and tells them that he has joined the gang that has been formed by the brothers of the one who was born to the cat in the old man's house.

The old woman's son visits the foreigner's house and Soyabean is selected to appear in an advertisement for cat food manufactured by the Chinese. The ad is a big success and Soyabean gets enamored with himself and ends up watching himself on the TV. He becomes an icon. The Tofu's brother warns her that the cat food that is being promoted is not good.

A epidemic strikes China and it is attributed to the cats. The neighbours want to kill the cats and the animal inspectors are going round the town rounding up the cats. Tofu gets caught by the animal inspectors and is taken off. But she is saved by a good Samaritan who forces the inspectors to release the cats.

She finds herself with the dog from her neighbourhood at the site where they building the Bird's Nest for the Olympics. Here she overhears the old woman's son describing how they are using a cheap poisonous substance in the cat food and how they are profiting from it. She and the dog are adopted by worker's at the site and she lives with them for sometime. Her brother has started looking out for her. He and his gang locate her and lead her back to her house much to the delight of the household.

Soon the epidemic dies and the cats are safe, but the cats being fed the cat food made my the Chinese are dying and ill health. Tofu tells her about the substandard cat food. They think about how to inform the world about it, but are unable. The ad featuring Soyabean is selected for an award and the cats make a plan.

Read the book to see what the plan is and if it succeeds.

There are some very quotable quotes in the book. The first one is by the old lady "Don't you think its better to like what you have than have what you like?". The second one is also by the old lady "What is the value of money when it can so easily be used up?. Learning can never be used up. Wisdom is never depleted. Fill your head rather than your pocket and you can never be robbed". Speaking about corruption "Money can turn black into white in this dirty world". Again the old lady "White wine turns a man's face red, yellow gold turns his heart black!". And the last one again by the old lady "The taste of a dumpling can't be judged by how well it is folded".
Wonderful quotes.

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