Kalu: A Prospect Of Love

Regardless of the past, she had endured, she was now content for being in an environment where few humans out of many shared the food with her, but not their hearts.  Though they fed her milk and rusks and biscuits, they never fed her love she longed. Oft times she looked for a plane ground to sprawl on. “Chal hut” was the sound she heard with a hand raised to the sky, sometimes a stick in the hand, few minutes later for every plain she lied on; indicating she need to find some other place.

Those were the suns of the winter when everyone sat underneath the glimmering sun on the chairs and carpets to chat. Kalu had her solace in the shadow beneath a car. Space under the car was the sole place she could stay for the longest period of time until a small kid came running out his home throwing slippers and balls and pebbles at her. Even though many bounced back after hitting the car, but few almost hit her. Scared, she always scurried from the place to find another shadow to lie on.

No one ever hearkened she was there since the monsoon, neither did she, but she was now in a much better place than all the previous she had belonged to in her past. She couldn’t remember how many times she was forced to relocate and change her territory. She didn’t actually remember anything about her past, just the faded visions of hostile hospitality she always got. Last she remembered were few jumbled images of a rope tied around her neck and pulled into a van and a building full of dogs. Terrorized and depressed. Next she remembered waking up on an unknown concrete ground, feeling a cold breeze near her hind legs where some of her fur was shaved and an itching ear. Every time she scratched the ears, she realized her left ear was a centimeter longer than the right. Or was the right one cut a little? She didn’t know. All she saw was a land full of strangers and all she felt was an itch and ache.

Opening her eyes between unknown land and space and people, she walked whatever part of the day she could to find a shelter where other dogs didn’t snarl at her before finding the dark shadow of a car where she could sit and think and  hope and dream again; sit and think and hope and dream again…of better times.

It was just another day beneath the car till she saw the yellow and blue slippers passing her by. Something was different. The person folded his legs and sat on the ground facing the car right beside it. Kalu backed in terror for she was scared she would again be caught by her scruff and pulled out. She saw a hand emerging from above and landing on her head, followed by two eyes peering at her. The hand moved till the neck, up it went just to feel it on her head again, and it moved till the neck again, and again, and again, and again. All she could see of him now were a hand, two laps and a head with small hair, color same has Kalu’s…..black.

Minutes later he picked up a lying piece of paper and made a rapid oscillatory motion towards her with it. She felt the wind piercing through her fur. All of this was a little queer for her. She saw those pair of legs and whom it belonged to every day, but he and his legs were always apathetic of her presence. He never cared if he saw her, but he always scurried the same way she did when she saw the kid coming with a slipper in his hand. Was he scared of her as she was scared of others? If yes, then what is the same hand doing on her head? She didn’t know what to do, so she let him be and closed her eyes. Was this the beginning of the better times she’d dreamt of, she didn’t know, she didn’t want to know. All she did was embrace the moment.

She saw him day and night now. Never a noon passed when she didn’t see the hand emerging and smiling eyes peering again. Sun had finally risen for her, but she wasn’t sure, what if all of this was a bait? In the day, he would caress her, but in the nights he ran away as she ran to him.  Every time she ran to have his hand on her head, he removed it, she then would rub the head against his lap, but he would squirm and hurry away. He never gave her any food to eat, but he gave her his company for an hour in the noon every day. She would wait beneath the car all day for him to come. Whenever she saw those slippers passing by, she came outside and went towards him. As days and weeks and months passed, his squirming and wriggling lessened. Kalu finally had someone she always wanted. Whenever he came downstairs and Kalu saw his feet, she would run to him and he would smile and look at her and put his hand on her as she always wanted. Sometimes he would pass on few biscuits under the car and she would eat it hastily. Everything was weird for Kalu now. She never felt loved to this extent all her life. Had the world around her changed? Or would she open her eyes and wake up from the dream? Soon she realized it wasn’t a dream.

Wherever he went, Kalu went with him till the end of her territory and gazed at him go.  He would look back from a further distance to her tilted head and pass on a smile. She would turn back to find comfort under the car again. Night and day, whenever Kalu saw his feet from underneath the car, she would run out to him. He would protect her whenever the kid came running to hit her. She would hide behind him whenever trespassers dog barked at her. After all the negative things that would happen with her all day, she would wait for him. She didn’t care if he would give her something to eat or not, but she cared when he wasn’t there with her when the Sun was bright. He wouldn’t come some rare noons and she'd wait for him, those days he would come late night from outside and Kalu never let him go until he spent some time with her.

They both would spend hours together each day. Everything was settled now for her. She got food to eat and drinks to drink every day from different people at different time of the day and someone who played with her….or at least tried. He would throw a ball, or run, hoping she would do the same. But she never moved a muscle to look at the ball, and run? Not even in her dreams…or his. All she wanted from him was the lap she could rub her head on or his hand he could rub on her head. Noon was the time that was meant for him and Kalu. It was okay when he didn’t come occasionally, but she would still wait.  For months, it continued.

Things changed soon after that. She didn’t see him for over a week now. Where had he gone? She looked everywhere, every crevice, every day, but all in vain. Each noon she now sat in front of his door, peeked inside and waited outside, but he would not come. Even in the night, he wasn’t there. She would sit and think and hope and dream again…of him. She started feeling depressed and found her new solace in a house where they allowed her to lay beneath the stairs whenever she wanted and they would give her meat and milk. She wouldn’t let anybody touch her. What if she got close to them and left her like he did. No, he didn’t leave, he couldn’t. She wanted his hand again, his lap again. She wanted to tilt her head and see those smiling eyes again, but they were nowhere to be found

To Be Continued......