She is Minu the philosopher. A 7-year-old cat. She was born in India. She does not believe in god. She laughs at humans when they practice religion. She gets angry with humans because they practice a cruel, disgusting, dehumanizing, unjust caste system.
She believes in evolution.
Minu used to believe that cats were first domesticated in ancient Egypt around 4000 years ago. But she recently started believing that cats were domesticated in Asia 10,000 years ago around the time of the development of agriculture. She learned that a 9,500 years old Neolithic grave was excavated in Cyprus that contained the skeletons of a human and a cat.
I have no idea why she thinks that Himalayan snow leopard is her ancestor. 
What about Bast or Bastet, Egyptian Cat-Goddess? I asked her.
She told me that throughout history ignorance encouraged people to worship things. She thinks every human and animal should live with head held high, with dignity and honor. I said, ‘What about me, some of my friends say I worship my adopted daughter!’ Minu smiled, ‘They are so jealous of you! I know you treat me like your boss. It is alright. But I will never let you worship me. I am no Goddess. Actually there is no such thing as God or Goddess!’
Minu the philosopher loves to study physics. I sleep but she would stay up late at night studying. Her favorite physicists are Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss.
She likes to read Richard Dawkins. She has just finished reading The Magic of Reality.I met Richard Dawkins at Reason Rally in Washington DC in April this year. We both were invited at American Atheist convention. After his lecture he signed his Magic book for Minu the philosopher. Minu was so happy! She sent Dawkins an email, ‘Uncle Richard, Many thanks for the autograph. You help me to open my eyes to the wonderfulness of the truth and the poetry of the universe.’
She is now having a Twitter account . But she is too busy studying and thinking and writing. She doesn’t get much time to tweet.
She doesn’t study all day long. Sometimes she likes to do other things too. After reading newspapers in the morning or after having her lunch, she takes a nap.
She is against war and bloodshed. She believes if humans did not spend their enormous amount of money to make weapons of mass destruction, they could provide food,shelter,education, health care, job for every human in the world including cats and other domestic animals.
Minu is so worried about me. When Mullahs issue fatwas or demand for my execution by hanging, she desperately tries to find me a hiding place.
She shared her bed with her aunt who came to visit her a few months ago. She slept exactly the way her aunt slept.
Minu could not accept the idea that she would live with humans who kill each other everyday because of their belief in God. She was so sick and tired with human society that she decided to leave. She left for jungle but came back after a couple of days because she realized that she loved me very much and she wouldn’t be able to live without me.
She has recently visited President Obama. It’s an interesting story. She paid $5 dollar to buy a ticket for a chance to attend the fund-raising dinner at George Clooney’s house in LA. She was so lucky! she got an invitation letter and flight tickets. They did not know that she was a cat. The brave girl flew to LA but was kept in quarantine at the airport.
She is a cat from a 3rd world country! It was not easy for her to enter a rich country! Animal rights organizations wrote letters to Obama. She was then released and joined the party. She bought a nice black dress to dance with Obama and Clooney. BTW, She almost fell in love with Clooney.
She is now busy in preparation for writing her memoir. She doesn’t have time to chat with me or watch TV or talk with her friends on her iPhone or tweet or facebook. She needs to read some of the autobiographical works before writing her memoir. One of the books she has chosen to read is my ‘My Girlhood’.
Dear Ms Taslima Nasreen
MY name is Santanu Mitra. I was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, and live in Vancouver Canada. I have been running a podcast for some years now, as a hobby, named Santiniketan Podcast. IT was originally hosted by Apple till this month, but had to be moved to Amazon since Apple is discontinuing this service.
One can find the podcast for now at Feedburner : http://feeds.feedburner.com/mac/gWXa
It has 238 episodes aired over the past four years, most of them between 40 minutes and an hour long. Originally it contained more talk and music in Bengali. Lately it has more in English. Social and socio-cultural content is high on its agenda.
You can also directly listen to the most recent two episodes of Santiniketan Podcast at:
# 237 a talk with Mr. Debal Deb, about preservation of indigenous rice varieties in India : http://mypodcast.s3.amazonaws.com/Enclosures/237_debal2_120612.mp3
#238 a talk with Ravi Kuchimanchi, whose life story was borrowed by Shah Rukh Khan to make the movie “Swadesh”: http://mypodcast.s3.amazonaws.com/Enclosures/238-aid-group.mp3
I am moved by your plight, and the development that apparently blocks your return to either your land of birth in Bangladesh or in neighboring West Bengal.
I would like to interview you on phone if allowed, to edit and put up on a future podcast, where you might explain, either in Bengali or in English or mixed, as you prefer, your situation, and anything else you might have to say to potential listeners.
I could send you some more detail by email, if you knew yours.
Thanking you
Santanu Mitra
[email protected]
[email protected]
Very beautiful Mam.
Made my day 🙂
Made my morning — give the furry one extra loves from us.
Minu is awesome.
Brilliant! Boris the Irish atheist cat will soon also be online and they can share ideas. Boris is currently recovering after a leg injury plus being lost for a week, and is sulking a bit because he is being kept indoors for a while.
Cats are not Atheists! They *KNOW* they are gods.
I agree
Minu is beautiful! I may be biased because she has very similar coloring to my former rescue kitten, Iggy, but she looks very soft and huggable, like you take excellent care of her.
This is such a wonderful read! Minu is awesome! Lots of love to her.
Awesome Minu is awesome.
The sweetest thing ever. I wish people thought this way all the time.
If you’ll excuse the profanity in the picture, this one sums it up:
http://pics.kuvaton.com/kuvei/cats20.jpg
Thank you so much. Minu sends her love to everyone here.
Hello Minu, please spend some time with your own family(species),otherwise you may forget who you are. Take care.
Minu brings sunshine on a rainy day. <3
Genius.
Love ‘Cats’.. Yours, in particular.. Ch33rs.
This was just amazing…. I had a bad day today n this end was just the thing I needed… Thank u so much for sharing this small part of ur daughter’s life….
P.s I am a huge admirer of urs and ur daughter’s too……. U have been my inspiration for many things….. I literally adore u…..