It s a Dog's Life

“What a day?” I thought!

What – a-- day?

Such a peaceful beginning?? Then I remembered that It was not one of those days of the week when the fat kid near my place would strut out early in the morning wearing his white shirt and white shorts...

His mother coo-coo ing him to eat. The already fattened kid getting pampered to become fatter. Then his dad honking for no reason at all as he took out his car to drop his baby hundred metres away from his house. Then the regular famished lady shouting at the top of her voice selling something. The hustle-bustle starting and invariably the guy in the khaki hitting me with his lathi daily to show his boss - the fat kid’s dad that he was clearing the way for his car. It did not matter where I chose to lie down. He made his boss assume that I was always in the way. This is how my day usually started… But today was different… Atleast for the other days, I wanted to get out of this place. But I did not have options.

I had to pull myself..one of my legs once got caught under a car’s tyre and it has not healed for quite a long time. I cannot walk.. I have to pull myself. And one more important reason – I prided myself on being the dog of the elite kind.. who lived near proper houses and clean surroundings. I could hardly stand the smell on the other side of the road with a nose that “talked” too much

All this did not stop me from going over to the “other side” of the road. The other side on all days was peaceful (like this one day of the week on this side). The other side did not have the hustle-bustle.
People were more serene than Ruffle herself. Ruffle... She was a friend.. A brown grizzly bitch she was.. with a dumb nose...or may be i was the peculiar one.. with the most talkative nose... I wanted to live near her place on the other side. But as i said, the strong smell of the river would kill me. And so would my pride.. I wonder how those humans and Ruffles managed to live there. “Those” humans.. they were very much unlike “mine”.

“Those”..they were relaxed and happy. You could see it on their faces. Mine were sick.. their brows would never part...there was no complete happiness.. as if they were always in pursuit.. They were in continuous movement. Either walking or cycling or on their bikes and cars belching out the choker smoke. Each one was to himself. There would be no happy chatter. Everyone was a world.Except for the khaki guy in the morning, no one would give a damn about me. Ruffle was the lucky gal. She had got friendly with a family in her place. She would hang out near their place almost for the whole day. She got to eat the crumbs daily from her people. Mine would dispose it off in the tall plastic green things. I once saw the cow getting caught inside it and i have vowed never to look into that food... never.. Moor was blue by the time they she managed to get herself out. She said she was about to die. Well.. I did not know how it felt like but it was not nice to die.. I knew that...

Well.. today was the comfortable day of the week. I could laze around without worrying about the mad rush in the mornings. These humans.. “My guys” as I choose to call them.. they are a peculiar lot.. Whatever they do, they mad rush and all of a sudden, I wonder how after every six days and six nights all that mad rush comes to a stop.

Ruffles was her cheery self as usual.. happily barking away and waddling around with a bunch of semi naked kids in the black river. As soon as I reached, she pranced on to me and bow-bow ed me to join their fun. She knew I would not join her but she nevertheless asked me. I excused myself telling that the river would spoil my fur. But I missed the fun.

The black semi naked kids were happiness personified. Their faces, though difficult for my eyes to recognise, were bloated with excitement and It seemed nothing in the world would ever stop their happiness. Their parents were looking at them with shining faces.. and amongst all the happiness, adding merriment to the party was Ruffles as usual bubbly and bounding with meaningless (or so it seemed) excitement. After the aqua excitement, the parents decided to treat their kids to a feast – rice with water and onions. The kids seemed to relish it. As Ruffles and I were looking at the food longingly, the lady gestured and asked the kids to offer us some food. The kids were overjoyed to offer us the food. Though we did not like the onions part, we lapped up the rice. Rice does something to the system. We cuddled up in a corner and we dreamt of having a kennel on our own.

After the nap, Ruffles offered to accompany me to my side.. and So we walked happily paw in paw and we reached our lane. All of a sudden, out of the corner there came zooming, a red bolt of lightning. The motorbike hit me on my torso and I lurched as I felt a mountain’s weight on my torso. I blacked out with a searing pain. I woke up with a start.. Blood all over… tubes had emerged out of my system. Ruffles was looking at me, yelping helplessly. The pain made me shout… it brought a few lookers but they were just passing by. The pain shot through my body. I wanted it to end and slowly I could feel the pain subsiding. I thanked my maker for relieving me of the suffering. “My people” were looking at me as they would look at a tree. The fat kid was looking at me with the same expressionless face. So did his dad from the car. His mom did not react either. The fat kid turned into the black kid who gave me his rice. My mind was playing tricks on me. May be it was sensing end. I wondered if the rice had got digested by now. I looked at Ruffles and thought if the people on the other side would let the same happen to her – “Die a Dog’s death”. I was almost beginning to stink by now and then there was Darkness.. and I “finally” thought “ What – a – Day ?”