The rise of cuteness

The baby is laughing. Now she is not. She's seated in a chair. Her elder brother blows "hau" into her ear. The baby laughs madly. The brother waits for her to calm down, and then breathes "hau" into her ear. This catches the baby by surprise. She laughs even harder. The brother hits her again with a high-pitched "hau". The baby can't take it this time. She is helpless with laughter. And I love her for it. She calls her brother "hau dada". (Dada is Bengali for brother.)

The clip is popular on the Internet.

Take another video - of a monkey grooming a cat. Is it love? I like to think so. For the cat mews adorably to toothbrush on her fur.

I came across another - of a puppy getting tickled on wet grass. Its arms were up in glee, and its head rolled with laughter, I suppose. Clearly, the puppy could not get enough of the tickles. Neither could I.

As I watched, I felt my sense of well-being rise. And then the puppy rolled over, eager for a belly rub again.

This unleashed a tsunami of silly videos: kittens playing keyboards, puppies swinging crazy, pandas sneezing nosily.

The best were the ones where an animal does something we recognise as human - a puppy looking thoughtfully at itself in the mirror, a lioness hugging and kissing her caretaker.

Sometimes, mid-video, I wondered: what is it about these clips that makes them so gripping, and not just to me.

Perhaps, cuteness has a power over us, and watching babies and animals makes us happier.

Consider Blaze, an 11-month-old Alaskan husky who hates his kennel. What dog doesn't? But Blaze hates it so much he has learnt to say "no" to his owner.

Owner: Time to go to the kennel, come on.

Dog: Nuuuuuu.

This video had me laughing.

Such coochie-coo behaviour used to be reserved for private moments in the home. But now, people feel free to indulge their fondness online, even in the company of strangers. Consider Cuteoverload.com, which has photographs and videos of puppies, kittens, and baby rabbits.

In fact, hundreds of websites have cute videos to refresh your afternoon.

I am addicted to the clips. But this addiction comes at a price. In the hours I have spent watching and re-watching them, I could have mastered Kathak.

But then, we are too weary of the world we have created for one another. So, it makes sense to turn our attention to such videos. I mean, I would much rather watch a cat playing piano (plenty out there) than a person. This is because these videos aren't fake. They aren't carefully scripted either. Rather, they seem to be all about love.

When we look at animals and babies, we don't have to think about one another, or about race, class, and politics, which make life so complicated. And when they can have inter-species love, surely humans can get along better, too. Take the example of a monkey putting its paws in the mouth of a small hound, to give an unusually thorough check-up.

But I wonder if anyone will remain productive if he/she watches a horse nuzzling a kitten all day.

YouTube is alive with such videos. Recently, I watched a crow skiing down a snowy rooftop, using a jar lid. I wondered if it had watched children snowboarding, or came up with this trick on his own. Then, for reasons unexplained, a baby bird is seen landing and loitering on a guitar. It pulls at the strings, and at your heart, too.

ashish.sharma@bsmail.in