Circus Cat, Alley Cat (Summary) written by Anita Desai

Summary Of Circus Cat, Alley Cat Written By Anita Desai

About Author (Anita Desai)

Anita Desai was born in Mussoorie on 24 June 1937, Born of a Bengali father and a German mother – she was to have diverse influences to fertilize her poetic imagination. At the age of seven, she began to write prose, mainly fiction, and published some small pieces in children’s magazines. He first novel cry, the peacock was published in 1963.

Summary Of Circus Cat Alley Cat

Since then she (Anita Desai) has published many novels, including Voices in the City, Bye, Bye, Blackbird and Cat on a Houseboat. Her novels, Fire one the Mountain, won the Sahitya Akademi award for 1978 and finally wrote Circus Cat Alley Cat.

Desai’s short stories have been collected under the title Games at Twilight (1978).

Anita Desai, Who describes herself as a lyrical novelist, lives in Delhi.

Circus Cat, Alley Cat Summary Written by Anita Desai

The author (Anita Desai) was playing hide and seek with the children who lived next door. The large and heavily built, with very black eyes and black hair circus lady Anna Came there. She called them in such a loud and sharp voice, with a neem stick in her hard. The author, Anita Desai was much afraid and crept over the manure pit and went home. The remaining children were also very much afraid of her. They began to leap and spring.

Circus Cat, Alley Cat Summary

The author (Anita Desai) was not able to understand why the family of Bates chose a Circus Lady to be Nanny for their children. The author learnt that the actually name of this girl was Shakti. She was a Malabar (which is in karala) girl. She was born in a circus. She trained the big cats (tigers) since Anna was thirteen years. The most breath-taking and terror-striking of her feats was to drape a tiger over her shoulders and stand on the backs of two cats. She would then order the lions to roar.

She married a Circus Boy who led the cats. But in no time, he said that a woman’s place was kitchen. He took over from her the circus duties and entrusted her with the household duties. She got angry and left him. By that time she had a baby. Mrs. Bates who saw Anna’s begging condition in Daryaganj street brought her home and made her the Nanny of her children.
The children could not feel comfort with her. When she brought a tricycle and a skipping rope, they bought that the Circus Lady came of meat dripping with blood and the spoon looked like a whip and her dress like a circus uniform. Her black and bright eyes seemed to the bright circus arc lights. In spite of Bates efforts, she could not make her a nanny to the children.

One day Anna started weeping in the garden. She was crying that her baby was gone and the God had taken her away. It meant that her baby was dead. The author (Anita Desai) ran to her mother to enquire how the baby who was very healthy till the previous evening, passed away so suddenly. Even her mother was shocked. Both of them went to Mrs. Bates. She informed them that Anna’s baby was alive; only the baby was taken away by her husband.

As the circus had moved to Bombay, Mrs. Bates sent Anna off to try to get her baby back.

Several years later, the author (Anita Desai) and her neighbor saw Anna for the next time when they went to a circus. They saw a little girl somersaulting in the saw dust around. They thought she was Anna’s daughter. They could not find Anna’s husband. They found Anna, the circus cat only.

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