Riding across the streets of Jamshedpur I saw a lonely street with no traffic, dead leaves lying on the road as if no one has walked across it since long. I turned my bike to explore or set a benchmark of speed of myself. The speedometer indicated 80kmph, 100 kmph…buildings on the both the sides of the road passing by…I could hear the sound of crumbling leaves amidst the roaring sound of the engine. Suddenly I pressed both the brakes, narrowly escaped of skidding…….I could see a puppy sitting in the middle of the road with a golden strap across its neck. I yelled whose puppy is this…. And then I watched something which I could never forget….
A beautiful bungalow, ancient gates……..pathway between two beautiful gardens…exactly what you think of in dreams…. A girl rushed out of the bungalow lifted the puppie up asking doggy (pronounced: daw-g) are you ok, Dawg made some noise as if telling yeah I am fine…. Till such time I was standing still and looking at their interaction…but I could not resist and asked her couldn’t you take care of your Dawg or whatever it is….. The girl removing the hair from her face….replied breathing heavily…this is a road not a runway, couldn’t you ride safely…. The word kept repeating in my ears…my eyes gazing at her….. hair flickering over her face due to light breeze across the street…her movement of lips as she speaks each word… nose perfectly craved for her face…. Body sculptured to suit her face… I was just gazing at her…awakened by the barking of Dawg as if it was warning me to stay away from her….
I went across that street a lot many number of times after that incident and this time slowly but could neither locate the girl nor the Dawg….I enquired from houses close by but no one actually knew about them but everyone had an idea that someone had come to stay in that house lately…… One day I noticed an old lady coming out of the bungalow…. I stopped my bike and went inside that bungalow…. The lady was very polite and humble and talking as if she had not talked to anyone since ages… she told me that the girl left to her home town Mumbai as her Dawg met an accident and she was feeling very lonely. Upon further asking about her and the Dawg……She made me sit in the lawn and agreed to tell me the entire story if I agree for a cup of tea……
The lady started narrating me the story…
The girl (Dincy) came from Mumbai to pursue further studies… during the initial days of her stay she used to miss her home a lot as she was away from her home for the first time… most of the time she was alone and never interacted with any one, so couldn’t make any friends.
One day when was returning from her college she could see a lot of puppies littering around but one of them was different….he was sitting idle next to the gate of the bungalow…she fed her a biscuit. Gradually this became an everyday routine….and strangely the puppy never intermingled with any other puppy roaming around nether it moved away from the gate. It felt as if he also loved to stay lonely.
Dincy started interrelating with the puppy and brought it with her in the bungalow and named it Dawg. They used to play in the lawn, sleep together, eat together…whenever Dincy was at home they always used to stay together. Dawg and Dincy both were happy with each other’s company. In the meantime Dincy started interacting with people in her college but they were not friends.
One day Dawg came in front of a bike and that day Dincy promised that she will never leave her alone and always take care of her. Dawg also always used to be along with her and protect her in whatever possible ways.
It was a Friday evening and Dincy’s college mates were planning a party but Dincy preferred being at home. Her phone rang and it was her classmates…Dincy picked up the phone and got to know that all of their coming over to their place. There was a change in Dincy’s behavior and for a change she was excited as she was hoping to make new friends. Dincy was watching TV and the Dawg was lying on her lap. All of a sudden the doorbell rang and Dincy out of excitement pushed Dawg out of her lap and rushed towards the door…. Dawg followed her but she shouted at her to go in. Dincy was surprised by the party thrown by her classmates……they had brought party poppers, drinks and all the other arrangements required for the party. Dincy was very happy that she had made friends and they had party all night over. Next day morning Dincy woke up but was unable to locate Dawg…… so she started watching TV, after some time Dawg couldn’t resist and came close to her and again kept its head on her lap and slept. This became the routine of every weekend, her classmates used to come over during weekdays, she started coming late and she was happy that she had finally made friends.
One weekend it was different…..When Dincy woke up in the morning she could not locate Dawg so she started watching TV, hoping that Dawg would come as usual but it dint happened… she went here and there shouting, crying to find him but he was not around. Dincy went out of the gate and found Dawg lying exactly at the same place he used to sit. This time he was dead, a bike ran over him. Dincy got so hurt by this incident that she went back to her home.
I asked the old lady why did Dawg do this to her…why did he go outside at night…and there are huge lights above the main gate…how can a bike run over him???
With tears in her eyes the old lady replied…..
Dawg only used to eat when Dincy fed her and every party Dincy forget to feed Dawg…. Dawg used to sit in the corner, crying…. Some of her classmates threw drinks at him…..but Dincy was so excited that she couldn’t observe these things… Dawg since childhood preferred being lonely and I don’t know when it went outside to sit exactly at the same place from where Dincy picked her up…..
You never mentioned what happened to the lights…..?
Dincy and her friends were practicing throwing stones at some target…. And it was Dincy whose stone hit the target which was the main gate’s light.
I hugged the old lady…… asked her Dincy’s contact but she refused. I could not talk to her anymore, so I left with a hope that I could find Dincy someday.
