Life and Death

Place: Madh-Malve Road, Outside Sea-Shells Bungalow

Date: 28-02-09 - 1-03-09

Time: Around 1 AM

There is a small shop outside the bungalow. There were a couple of steps coming down from the shop which ended at the road. That is where I was sitting. A beach-house party was on in the Bungalow. The students of one of  India's top B-Schools enjoying there last night out together. But, as always, I just could not enjoy the party. Singing, dancing, drinking - nah, not my taste. I just like talking and listening, that's it. And, of course, I do derive voyeuristic pleasure seeing people do ludicrous stuff in their inebriated states. This is something that I've got hooked to since the first party that I went to. In any case, even these things are not able to hold my attention for long, uneasiness surfaces. Inevitably, I feel some kind of an emptiness and venture out searching for goodness knows what! That's what I've done in almost every party that I've attended till date - make a lot of noise, then disappear and come back later, towards the end, and again make a lot of noise. So there I was, outside another party.

Vehicles of all sizes buzzed by, every few seconds or so. Then I noticed them -  a bitch roaming about with her pups. They were across the road at an angle of about 40 degrees from 'straight'. I tried to count them. The light wasn't very good and the fact they were hopping about made the task quite difficult - 5 or 6, 5or 6. Five, finally I was sure. All of them following their mother, trying to suckle as she kept moving here and there so as to be able to give herself a rest.

Then she went inside the bungalow across the road from a small hole in the bushes. The pups remained outside, playing, feinting, smelling stuff thrown along the roadside,  enjoying life in short! The road was empty. There was a long pause - no vehicle on the road for about two minutes.

Two adventurous pups came to this side of the road, about 3-4 metres from me. They were having the time of their lives. The other three pups were having fun on the other side. Then, all of a sudden there were a number of vehicles which came simultaneously, making loud sounds - horns and all. Amazingly, the pups were not bothered by the sounds. They didn't even look up. All dogs that I had seen till date were either scared of the cars or hated them, at least they were all cautious when they heard the sound of one. These pups just didn't take notice.  There was another long silent patch.

Then a Tata Safari came from my left, the pups looked up and began chasing - hooray! that's it - act like a dog. Then a Wagon R came from the right, they shifted their attention.A Scorpio from the left, they were in the middle of the road, waiting for it. A truck from the right. The Scorpio reached them and so did the truck. One pup managed to get under the truck. The other one - the rear tyre of the truck went over it. Death.

The road was empty again, the pup wailed in pain, it had been critically injured, unable to move. It was still alive. The bitch came out followed by the other pups. As she kept her first step on the road, a vehicle whizzed by, and another and another. Helpless, she went in. Then a Black Santro went by. It stopped some distance away. The road was silent again. The back door opened and a man in his late twenties stepped out. The other doors opened. Two men- same age group as above. They rushed to the pup. "Get some water", one of them said. One of them picked it up and took him to the roadside while another got some water. They poured some water on the wounds of the pup, it wailed even louder with pain. They attended it for about 5-7 minutes, then the bitch came and took it away. The men left.  There was no more wailing.

All this time, I was sitting there, voyeuristically enjoying the game of Life and Death. While there was a party going on inside the bungalow -  quite ironically, a celebration of life!