The Barpali Days

Stories 5:32 PM

Bhow Bhow

The other morning when I took out my wallet there a hundred rupee note was missing. I was disturbed again as my things are missing one after another. It is worry some especially when your things are stolen at your own home. I won’t waste my time reporting an FIR in a police station even if my entire wallet would have been pick pocketed in the public transport while travelling Bargarh in the local bus. May God forgive, as under the given circumstances I doubted on my house maid Sumani. But when Sumani came to attend her daily ordeal, she submitted a moiled out piece of Rupee Hundred to my mother that she discovered while sweeping the floor beneath the bed. It was evident to be yet another prank of Daina, the five months old Labrador we got at home. The previous night while re-organising my wallet this note might have escaped and fallen on the floor. Diana must have picked it, this is the conclusion all that I able to draw. Prior to this my mother misplaced her spectacles somewhere and went blind for half a day. I told her, Amma you are getting old that is why forgetting the things to remember. But by evening the broken pieces of the spectacle were recovered, while the glass was intact and scratch less.

As such rearing dogs is not something new to my family. My parents are fond of dogs and we kept a dog which ever house we lived had a campus with the ground area. For the past four years we got Dany the male Labrador dog. But now we got Diana the new kid on the block. And to be true, the public at Barpali think, people don’t get food to eat where as we are feeding two foreign dogs. This is how a neighbor’s envy becomes an owner’s pride.

As Diana’s teeth are growing, to sharpen it up she has got the tendency to bite one and everything where ever her mouth reaches. She left no furniture at home un-bitten; let it be the legs of the dining table, edge of the bed or the arm resting of the sofa set. The surviving wooden furniture which my mother got in her marriage from my maternal grandpa almost 42 years back are now taking their last breath.

[the furniture being disfigured by Diana]

As such my mother is the one who over feeds her three children let it be me, Dany or the Diana. But looking at the ever inflating prices of non-veg my Mother made it a point to make Diana a strict vegetarian from the day one. Initially my Mom used to spoon-feed her Cerelac, the human baby food. But how could you change the inborn nature of a mammal which is carnivorous. But one day while it was raining, Diana discovered a corpse of a baby crane in our garden. She picked that and brought it home. She entered her favorite space to hide i.e. under the wooden bed. She had her first ever non-vegetarian breakfast. With this the long standing penance of my mother was foiled. In the days to follow she also brought a un-cooked fresh small fish which might have been dropped from the beak of a crane in the garden. Let whatever their habits, I found these dogs highly disciplined in their eating habits. Unlike me they are not greedy. Dany is highly disciplined in her eating habits. Just two course of meals a day, that too no extra roti. When these dogs have their food, they go on playing and jumping around, as they got no school to attend. When exhausted they return home and catch a nap for couple of minutes. Unlike me this is how these dogs live life without worrying for tomorrow, while just being happy and contended for the day.

[school going kids while teasing ]

During the day hours when my mother would be bizzy in her cooking or her other choir at home, these dogs seat either at the corner or lay under the bed, but all the time keep on staring at my mother with their twinkling eyes. They might be sleeping but when wakes up, first go in search of my mother. Every weekdays at around 12.30 noon on the back street children return home from school. There are a few naughty kids who dare to come near the window and shouts as “bhow bhow”. And immediately our pair of dogs would join the band wagon. When Dany or Diana barks in retaliation, the kids shout as “a kukur” and flee the place while laughing loudly. This is how the street children enjoy teasing Dany and Diana.

During the monsoon one mid night Dany came upstairs and barked near the door as “bhow bhow”. When I opened the door she came inside and lifted her rear leg over the wooden cupboard. I did not punish him while understanding his plight, as it was raining insistently for the entire evening. Dany is very much choosy and civilized to attend the call of the nature only at the dry and clean places. It is good to have a short memory like what Dany have. Because, unlike me, it does not live life in the past. It got no sense of revenge or the guilt in its life.

When I would be there at home they heed no attention to me. But when I return home after a day’s work, while one dog would snatch away my LIC cloth bag, the other would snatch away my shoes as if they were missing me for long. They would take my shoe and show it to my mother to tell that I have returned home. These dogs don’t know how to express love, so they push me or scratch me with their sharp nails. So far together they tore at least half a dozen of my Sambalpuri cotton shirts. These dogs have really made my life breathless and miserable at my home.

It is not only the two dogs at home, but any other canines on the street as well often taught me a lesson, one or the other way. Once while I was having singada (Indian snax) on the street one street dog came and was silently starring at me. When I finished my breakfast it started wagging its tail. The jubilation with which it moved its tail from one end to the other has made me indebted towards it, even when in no way it was related to me. I was forced to buy two pieces of these samosas and given them to her.

[Esha with Dany at home]

[Esha while playing with Diana]

Two years back my mother fell briefly sick. The gas stove in the kitchen was shut as there is no second female at home to cook. Me and my Father got the breakfast, lunch and dinner ordered from the hotel. But Dany stayed hungry for the whole two days without partaking even a biscuit or a loaf of bread. This humble dog set on the bed while keep on licking the feet of my mother, as if it wants to embrace my mother. And Dany had his food only when my mother was back to normal health and cooked rotis for him with her own hands.

“Bhow bhow………..”