Last Updated on April 14, 2026 by admin
The sound came from inside the concrete. A thin, ragged cry — part howl, part wheeze — drifting down from somewhere near the top of pillar 556 at Kaloor Metro Station in Kochi, Kerala. Autorickshaw drivers parked at the stand below heard it first. They looked up, shielded their eyes from the sun, and saw a small shape pressed against a narrow ledge near the pillar’s crown.
A cat. Alone. Too high to jump. Too scared to move.
Nobody knows exactly how he got up there. Metro pillars in Kochi rise dozens of feet above street level, carrying the elevated rail track that shuttles commuters across the city. The cat may have climbed during construction activity or scrambled up in a panic and frozen once he realized how far down the ground was. However it happened, by the time the drivers noticed him, he’d already been there for days.
They named him Subhash.
The name wasn’t random. In Manjummel Boys — a Malayalam film that became a cultural phenomenon across Kerala — a young man named Subhash falls into a deep cave and is trapped in the darkness while his friends fight to pull him out. The autorickshaw drivers at Kaloor looked up at pillar 556, looked at each other, and saw the same story playing out above their heads. The cat stuck on the pillar was their Subhash. And they wanted someone to come get him.
Fifteen Days on a Concrete Ledge
Days passed. The cries continued — thinner now, weaker. Calls went to Kochi Metro Rail Ltd. Calls went to animal welfare groups. Calls went to the fire department. But reaching a cat wedged into the upper structure of a live metro pillar, with electric rail lines running overhead, isn’t something anyone can improvise on a lunch break.
Fifteen days after Subhash was first spotted, the Gandhi Nagar Fire Station finally assembled a full rescue team.
They showed up on a Saturday morning with a hydraulic lift. The plan was straightforward: ride the lift to the top of pillar 556, locate the cat inside the structure, and bring him down. But Subhash had wedged himself deep into a gap in the concrete, and the first attempt couldn’t reach him. Then the hydraulic lift broke down.
The team had to source another lift. Hours ticked by. Crowds gathered — commuters, shopkeepers, families with children on their shoulders. By evening, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd made a decision that would have been unthinkable for most transit authorities anywhere in the world: they would shut down the metro’s power supply at 11 PM to let rescuers work safely through the night.
For one stray cat.
Operation Subhash
The power went dark at 11 PM on Saturday, February 22. Traffic was restricted around Kaloor Station. Firefighters from the Gandhi Nagar station rode a crane up the side of pillar 556 while a second team positioned safety nets below in case the cat slipped. The operation — now officially dubbed “Operation Subhash” — had drawn a crowd that stood in the unlit street, watching flashlight beams sweep across the concrete above them.
The rescuers could hear Subhash but couldn’t see him. He’d retreated deeper into the gap. They coaxed. They waited. They repositioned the crane. Two and a half hours of careful maneuvering in the dark, dozens of feet above a city intersection, with an entire metro system sitting silent beneath them.
At 1:30 AM on Sunday, a firefighter secured a net around Subhash’s body and eased him out of the gap. The cat was shaking. He was thin — fifteen days on a concrete ledge with no reliable food or water had stripped him down to ribs and matted fur. They placed him carefully into a cardboard box and lowered the crane.
The crowd cheered.
Not politely. Not quietly. The kind of full-throated roar you hear at a cricket ground when the winning run is scored. Strangers who had been standing in the dark for hours — at 1:30 on a Sunday morning, for a stray cat they’d never touched — clapped and shouted as a cardboard box carrying a scared, skinny cat was brought back to the ground.
Where Subhash Is Now
A special ambulance was waiting. Subhash was driven directly to a veterinary hospital for a full health check. Reports confirmed he was dehydrated and underweight but had no broken bones or major injuries. After fifteen days on pillar 556, he was alive.
The autorickshaw drivers at Kaloor Station still talk about him. “Operation Subhash” trended across Kerala for days. And somewhere in Kochi, a cat who got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time became proof of something cat people already know — that one small life is worth shutting down the trains for.
An entire city turned off its metro, deployed its fire brigade at midnight, and stood in the dark cheering for a stray cat named after a movie hero. Subhash fell into the cave. Subhash came home.
Has your cat ever gotten stuck somewhere ridiculous? Tell us where in the comments. 🐱