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.
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.
Excuse me these two
dogs are barking again, I need to go and check what is the issue for now.
E. KIRAN MOHAN (The Writer)
Tahsil Chowk, Near SBI,
At\PO - BARPALI - 768029
Dist. Bargarh
Odisha, India