The Unknown Connection

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              (Based on true events)

I was on the roof, looking at the horizon in the east with arms tightly crossed across the chest when Aligarh gave a sidelong glance to the mighty sun that day. Twinkling in the sky were a few stars with the moon competing against the sun in terms of glow. For the first time after many months, I was awake at 5 a.m., probably because of the saint who hinted me to experience the moment of serenity in the morning amidst the hustle-bustle of humans after the day crosses its puberty. I was fully in the moment when I heard that sound coming from somewhere around the front gate of my house. The perfect silence gives you the power to notice even the slightest of the details. I climbed down the stairs and opened the gate. What I saw there made me feel a bit emotional in those small hours- a female dog was whimpering out of acute hunger. Suddenly, she looked at me with some transcendental expectations, making me feel my heart heavy. I ran in and brought a few rotis for her. She ate them voraciously, looking at me after every bite. Tears rolled down my cheeks, not because she looked at me repeatedly but because of the gratefulness that I could see in her eyes. Anyway, time passed by, and she went away sniffling. I continued to look at her until she disappeared from my eyes.

 

I had almost forgotten that incident until I saw her again following me during my evening walk the next day. I tried to shoo her away, but she continued to follow me. She didn’t forget my good deeds for tens of disapproving shouts, something in contrast to what humans do. From that day onward, a relationship started growing between me and her. She would follow me during my evening walk, sit beside me under an old banyan tree, twitch her ears every time she would sense something, and run to the main gate of my house every time somebody in my family would open the gate. I didn’t say a word to her, neither did she bark at me, but I could feel some kind of connection, a connection formed by an unknown communication. Her presence during my evening walks gave me a sense of security, and each day, I started going a little further than the previous day.

 

 Monsoon had arrived, and she had given birth to five puppies. She had kept the puppies in the space beneath the stairs leading to the front gate of the house. One day, the sky roared with fury and it started raining cats and dogs. Pleased by the cold wind, I went to sleep for 4 hours straight. I woke up in the evening when the rain got almost stopped. I went out to get some fresh air, but what I saw there froze me. Coated with mud from head to foot were lying all the five puppies, lifeless, just like a few mud toys thrown out by somebody after using them for years. I enquired a little more about the incident from the people who were standing nearby. I got to know that the rain brought flood into the little space of the puppies and their mother. The puppies could not save themselves because they were not big enough to walk on their feeble legs. The female dog came to my front gate repeatedly and barked, but nobody opened the gate. By the time I got to know these details, she came to the spot, grabbed one of the dead puppies in her mouth, and ran away in some unknown direction.

 

I have never seen her since that day, but dark clouds in the sky remind me of her frequently…




                             Image courtesy- gettyimages.in

 


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