Puppy love

It was like any other colony of a suburb. Independent houses and no apartments. Mud roads and no cement or tar roads. Every house had rangoli drawn at its gate and flowering plants adorned the compound walls. It was a busy colony where men left for work in the morning and returned in the evening. The women were left at home busy gossiping. They hardly had time for anything else. They were busy peeping out through the windows, checking who was having affair with whom, which house had guests and whether they arrived in big cars or on public transport. They did not understand the concept of privacy. They were interested in what was happening in others' family. They spoke about whose son was loyal to his wife than his mother, which lady was having trouble conceiving, who had got new clothes and from where, who wore heavier jewellery than others, which boy scored good marks and which one got spanked for bunking the class. There were many such topics discussed during the day, all of which went into the men's ears during the night. It was a colony that always buzzed with controversies, arguments and boasts.. Everyone lived happily gossiping their day into dusk.

Unnoticed by all the people was a bitch. A bitch in pain, a stray bitch. Like all other stray bitches, she struggled to find food to satiate her hunger pangs. Soon she learnt that the garbage dump was always abundant with food for her. She made it her home and ate over it and slept on it throughout her pregnancy. None of the busy inmates of the colony paid attention to it. The children were scared of the bitch's canines and maintained distance. Finally, its pain ended and the last of the puppies was out. She licked them each one after the other as they suckled her milk and slept. She slept over the garbage dump tired and spent. It was the next morning when Gopu saw the cute little puppies huddled beside their mom. They were six of them. He offered a biscuit to the bitch who ate it gratefully. Soon, Gopu emptied his pack of biscuits and ran home. He fetched some water in an empty coconut shell and gave it to her. He slowly neared the puppies and touched one of them. It felt heavenly until his mother dragged a kicking and crying Gopu inside, scolding him for touching the filthy puppies. Watching this, Shyam's mother said, “What is wrong with Vandana? Why is she angry with poor Gopu for feeding the bitch?” she went close to the bitch and Shyam followed her lead. “My! Look at them. See Shyamu! Aren't they cute?” Shyam took it as an encouragement and said. “Mom! Look at the puppies, they are sleeping on prickly thorns. Poor creatures.” he rushed in and got an unused doormat and placed it down for the puppies to sleep. Rupa, who was disappointed to part ways with her doormat, couldn't reproach her son publicly after her take on Vandana. Slowly everyone competed with the other in helping the puppies and the bitch. The bitch was happy and never barked at them because she knew they were helping her and her puppies. She was happy that her puppies were well fed. She never barked at the children who came to play with her puppies. She trusted them and knew that they didn't mean any harm. The children splashed water on them and gave them a bath daily which relieved the felines in the scorching heat.

Though it had started as a competition between the inmates of the colony, soon they grew fond of the puppies. The fatherless puppies were loved by humans who discarded fatherless babies as bastards and termed husbandless women as whore. They liberally and wholeheartedly gave them food, bones, biscuits and water. The puppies were sometimes allowed into their homes to play. The scampering, trotting and jumping puppies added bliss to the colony. The puppies's well being was now part of their discussion. What they ate in the morning? What could be given for lunch and dinner was spoken and thought of. The colony stood united on matters concerning the puppies. The puppies came waging their tails when the children returned from school. The children threw their bags and ran to play with the puppies. They played fetch ball, chased the puppies and were sometimes chased by them.

The bliss the puppies brought to the colony was magical. A bond of trust enveloped them until one day. The day when uncle Laxman started to office like any other day. He took out his car from the parking. A naughty and playful puppy ran to chase the car like it always did. But alas! It went under the tyre because uncle Laxman was reversing his car. That day, uncle Laxman didn't go to work. The children didn't go to school and their parents did not protest. It broke their heart to see the puppy writhe in pain. The bitch was in tears and the puppies huddled behind their mom, scared. The entire colony mourned the puppy's death. The bitch who never barked at the boys, barked when the boys picked up the dead puppy to bury. Few of them did not cook food at home and those who cooked left it untouched. The five puppies now reminded them of the lost puppy. The bitch now preferred eating from the garbage dump over the food offered to her. The puppies did not come running to the children as they were not six. They no longer played with the children. Instead, they sulked behind their mom. The inmates of the colony could do nothing to gain back the feline's lost trust. The bitch regretted trusting the humans and the humans regretted for failing her.

The magic spell was broken. Once more, the colony degraded to its previous state. The puppies soon grew into dogs, Stray Dogs who were stoned and sent away from the colony. The dogs ran away and found their abode at the dump yard which was much more bigger than the tiny garbage dump of the colony. Their mother, the bitch was taken by another dog to serve its non motherly needs.