Unlike any other day to my visit to the pet shop, I saw a person sitting under the shed of our shop with cardboard placed on his hips and a red shawl over his body near a place where cow dung spread in the middle of the footpath. The wet twigs were laying here and there. The cardboard wet in the rainy-day slides on the road and gets mixed with the cow dung. Like the usual days, I check the presence of six kids but my mind remembers gently that they were kept inside. All of them – the mom, the dad. their children. in other words, it’s Laali, it’s Chowchow along with the little pups named Bruno, Cindy, Fluffy and Kalli. All born and raised in the pet shop.
I can’t forget the day; these little pups were born. It was a surprise video call from my co-workers. See, the puppies as I jumped in joy unable to belief that I didn’t trust my intuition. I knew Pups’ mother was pregnant but that day, she was panting along with an uneasy body language. She was unable to sit at one place. She was not having her food. During those times, she was the only dog to have preferred the dusty footpath over the recently cleaned pet shop. By that time, three pups were born with some blood stains on the floor at some places. The Didi at the tea stall tried to throw water at the first newborn with water. She tried to tie the leg of the mother but the later is sensible enough to grab the opportunity to enter the pet shop while taking her baby on her mouth. The next afternoon, I dressed my best unable to keep my excitement to myself. The purple gown with bold eyeliner and nude pink lipstick as well as high heels. New born babies in our lives after so many years and a cause of celebration for everyone. New angels, new blessing on this Earth.
It was I who took the fragile little babies on my little palms with their nails barely visible along with their reddish paws and reddish nose. Lalli allowed me but the other people in the pet shop remained scared. Lalli played a massive role too in shooing the people away like a scarecrow with her beautiful shiny white teeth visible for everyone who wanted to see her babies. No one is allowed except the ones she considers safe and secure for her and her children. What I found interesting is the disgusting pungent smell of the puppies’ mouth which took me back to the days when my first pet Whiskey came to our house for the first time. No matter what you do or where you are this smell will always take you back to the first time you smelled it.
So, where was I, yes, the Pagol, right? I forget and drown myself in so much nostalgia that I forget the things that I am trying to write. The first few days with the Pagol has been scary because I was scared what if he scratches me or what if this Pagol steals from the pet shop. What will happen then? What will happen if this Pagol turns out to be like others I have seen like the naked man on the main road or the ones who have bitten people or scratch others or eaten the skunkiest kind of potato curry. To my surprise, I was shocked to find the Pagol having the lunch of the stray dogs while Lalli is scolding him at the top of her voice so that her children can have their food. However, no one dared to be near the Pagol because they don’t know how to deal with different kind of people that too unknown ones. The ones covered in dirt and black soot. The one who wears the same shirt every day. The one who crawls his way from one side of the footpath to another using his hips while he lavishly chews off the bones of the chicken and rice with no salt, only turmeric powder in it. I was horrified at the sight unable to belief someone can ever eat the food from the plate of a dog.
Meanwhile, Chowchow and his children were looking at the Pagol with their shiny eyes waiting for their turn of food but it is of no use. The food is already in the stomach of someone else. They must wait till evening for their murmuring stomach to silent itself. With the helplessness within me, I sat down near the desk with the book on my lap. The crows came in dozens to have the remaining grains of rice that they can find on the newspaper as well as on the footpath. Some were cawing while others were sitting on the board electric wire waiting for the perfect opportunity to have their food. With the same routine every day, I came across some observations like the Pagol has thin limbs that were swollen at the knees. He knows how to use slangs and talk to himself in public like the way we do the self-talk in the mirror. He may be a Pagol but he understands everything said to him by the public. He sits patiently, he begs for some coins, buys his beedis and have some cups of teas affordable for him. Sometimes, he fills up his water bottle but he sleeps on the road with nowhere to go. He uses abusive words to people but he uses them only to talk to himself. He fears the world. He fears its way except the fact instead of silence, his big round eyes express everything.
The puppies as they grew old also avenged the Pagol in their own way. They took off his shawl and slept on the cardboard instead of sleeping inside the pet shop. They shooed him away whenever he was shivering on a cloudy day. Sometimes, they managed to steal his food from his plate including the big piece of fish or some rice with gravy, they did so with pride. They were the experts in doing planned activities in the most meticulous manner. Be it avenging for their food or waking the Pagol up whenever he fell asleep. it is the utmost responsibility of these children to honor their guest to the full king styled treatment, he deserves. Who doesn’t love love but what about all the things that you say no but they manage to do it in your absence. For example- they stole fish from a nearby food shop and have it all by themselves or tearing the cushion in pieces with its white flesh all over the road or filling the floor of the pet shop with pieces of paper or claypot for tea or plastic cups or jumping towards my direction to have some hot tea. Their lips will burn but still the sweet tea is far better than expired pedigree or royal canine or drools. One day, they tore the sensor of a new bike with their itching teeth for which our boss paid the money to silence the offended rider.
When I enter the shop, the pups somehow gather themselves on the ground whenever I sit. They will fight for attention for who is the first person to lick my face. My recently blown hair is a mess as their long nails scratches my skull. I wonder what to write and what not to write as there are so many things going on in one row. Towards the front side of my body, Bruno and Cindy were fighting for attention while at the back side Fluffy and Kalli were fighting for who can sit on my shoulders. This is the only competition that they had within themselves. At the same time, their parents will try to lick my face while rubbing their head under my armpits. The pups on both the sides will try to do the same except the fact that I will lie on the floor this time; trying to guard my face with my hands to prevent further scratches. After the rat race is over, I will sit down in silence with my fingers locked with one another hoping for these children to fall asleep. Only to realize that some strangers will come, see the pups, and wake them up only to play for a minute and ruining my precious afternoon reading time.
Like me, the Pagol adjusted to this way of living, in the beginning he may have used a stone to keep the barking Lalli away but now, he has food on his plate. It is provided by my boss twice a day. Once in afternoon and once at night before the shop closes. However, one day, a drunk man came out of nowhere trying to hit the pups with a stone because their mother barked at him loudly. With his palms on his ears, he walked whooply to stop the constant source of night. We know nothing because the shop was closed. There was no one except some neighbors to fill us in with the details. Both fought a rough battle between themselves as the drunk man tried to beat one of the pups with a brick resulting in breakage of tooth of their mother. The Pagol shouted at the top of its lungs to protect the puppies but the entire family of voiceless creature surrounded the man. Their father pinched the drunk man in the calf with a hole in this pant . All of them barked in unison resulting in addition of barks of nearby stray dogs in the middle of a winter night. The wars of clans started resulting in inability of which one to deal and which one to ignore. The drunk man tried to break the glass bottle on the head of the Pagol but it failed as it fell on the ground. The lights switched on from the houses. The people with night coats over them gathered on the verandah came to check about the ongoing commotion only to find drops of blood spread on the floor while the Pagol removed a piece of glass from his hands. The men from some houses came to the area, first, they shut down the constant barking of the dogs by pretending to throw some stones at them and shoo them away. Then, they used water to scare the dogs off. The entire family of the voiceless managed to sit in one corner in silence with their red tongue out in the open air.
The drunk man blamed the Pagol for starting a fight with no reason. He said in his slurry voice, “I…..I…the so….n o…af teee long …(putting his finger on his head , looking upwards towards the sky ) is a haaard- woooooorking man. Who gave this Pagol the audacity to beat me nooowwww? I shallllllllll go to the polish station to write a complaint aaaaaggggaaaaiiiinnnnssst him. Nooo one absolutely nooooo one can stop me.”
The neighbors held the arms of the drunk man at the same time the women in housecoats arrived with the first aid kit to clean the wound but the Pagol refused help. When the people started to discuss about taking him to the hospital, the Pagol tried to run away but it was of no use. The women did what they thought best. They called the men to hold the Pagol who run off certain steps. The police arrived to arrest both men but they found the drunk man to put him behind the bars. Since then, no one knows where the Pagol lives or did he survive from his injuries. The drunk man was doing well but the Pagol was no where to be found. It has been months probably a year or so, no one knows where the Pagol is or how is he doing until the recent Christmas when all of a sudden, the dogs started to bark in unison at someone which is their usual schedule against any man with a sack or any women with a plastic bag. For this reason, I hear audible words like “Bitches, fuck off, like your owners.”
The grown-up pups were having something, a five-rupee fruit cake from somewhere I don’t know. Lalli and Chowchow surrounded the feet of the man, I couldn’t understand who he is with such a dark face, covered in black stains with a loose pants and hair as long as shoulder and beard touching the stomach until he sat on the ground to have his rice and fish from the nearby store and the pups as usual sat next to him with their tongue overloaded with saliva. They stole some bones from the fish and started to have them. We looked at each other eyes, the same scared stricken eyes as those eyes points to something around me. A plastic full of five cakes like the ones whose crumbs are laying on the floor. Without a word or without any apology, I say, “Thank you.”
I took them inside and gave some food to the man that I brought for lunch. Some chicken curry and some sweets on his plate.
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