Puppy Love
It
was 2 p.m. in the afternoon and Mahesh went off to play cricket in the scorching
heat with his friends. All of them were mostly a year or two older than Mahesh
who was 7. The bat, ball and stumps were bought by collecting everyone’s pocket
money. Raghav divided all of them amongst two teams. Mahesh was sent to one
corner of the ground for fielding. Mahesh insisted on bowling but his captain
asked him to obey. The ball never came to his side so Mahesh was getting bored.
Mahesh thought he would become a great cricketer one day. He would lead the
Indian team and make sure that Raghav is the 12th man in the team. Suddenly he
was brought back to the real world by Raghav’s shouts. The ball had just
bypassed him and reached the boundary. Raghav shouted “You duffer. The ball was
so close to you and you were standing and looking at the sky. We have lost the
match because of you. Now what are you doing standing here. Go and get the
ball”. Mahesh went to search for the ball with a sad look. He kept on searching
but couldn’t find the ball. Raghav shouted “Did you find the ball?” “No” came
the reply. Raghav decided that everyone would go back home now as it was already
4:00p.m. He gave the responsibility to Mahesh to find the ball else not to come
to play the next day. Mahesh looked at everyone leaving him all alone to search
for the ball.
Reluctantly he started searching
for the ball again. He couldn’t find it behind the bushes. Probably the ball
would have gone into the shed behind the bushes he thought. But how would he get
inside the shed. He saw some small space in one corner of the shed. As he was
lean it would be very easy for him to creep inside and check. He quietly crept
inside the shed. It was completely dark inside the shed. How would he be able to
search for the ball in pitch darkness? He started feeling some itching on his
hands and legs which he realized was because of cobwebs all around. He rubbed
his eyes to look around closely. He saw a white thing in the pitch darkness.
Suddenly Mahesh sneezed loudly. Mahesh could see the white thing running around
and making whining sounds. He realized that it was a small puppy. He felt pity
for the puppy. He decided to take the puppy home and feed it. He was aware that
Amma, Appa won’t like a dog at home. So he decided to feed him secretly.
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He quietly tip toed inside his
house. He rushed into his room and closed the door behind him. He kept the puppy
on the floor and decided to bring something for him from the kitchen. He went to
the kitchen. Amma gave him a glass of milk everyday after he came from play.
Today also she gave though Mahesh decided that he would
give his share of milk
to the puppy. He kept the tumbler of milk beside the puppy. Suddenly someone
entered his room. It was Minakshi, his sister. She was about to scream when
Mahesh quickly closed her mouth with his hand.
“From where did you bring this
little thing?” asked Minakshi. Mahesh narrated the entire story. Mahesh told her
that the puppy is not drinking the milk. She said “Mahesh, how can it drink from
a tumbler. Go and bring a bowl. It can’t put its mouth inside the tumbler”. He
quickly went to the kitchen and asked his mother for a bowl. Amma wanted to know
why he wanted the bowl. |
Mahesh quickly added “You ask too many questions. Just give
me the bowl.” He quickly took the bowl and fed the milk to the puppy in the
bowl. He expected Minakshi to support him in keeping the puppy. “What would you
give me if I convince Amma for keeping this puppy?” asked Minakshi. “Whatever
you want my dear sister” said Mahesh lovingly. Minakshi demanded his magic
rubber. He said “Dear there is no magic in that rubber. I just used to tease you
earlier that I have a magic rubber. But actually there is no magic in it.” She
said “Fine then give me the fun fighter game which Appa gave you last month.”
This was turning out to be a very expensive deal. He understood that his little
sister was too smart for her age. After thinking for few minutes Mahesh said “My
dear sister, I was just playing with you. The magic rubber does have magic in
it. You can have it for a day”. Minakshi said “No. If you want my support then
you would have to give it to me permanently.” Mahesh gave in to her demand
reluctantly.
Together they went to Amma.
Minakshi started the conversation asking “Amma how is Vanaja Chitti?” Amma
replied “How come you remembered Vanaja chitti out of the blue? She called up
today morning.” “Amma how is Chitti’s pet Ranga? He is very well mannered isn’t
it?” Minakshi added quickly. “He wasn’t keeping well. He had some infection.
Chitti was busy with him. He is better now.” Picking up some courage Minakshi
asked innocently “Amma, cant we also keep a puppy at home? They are so cute.”
Amma said “No way. You have to take care of it like an infant. Give it bath;
take out for walking twice or thrice a day. Its not a easy job”. Mahesh quickly
said “Amma, I can take care of all that. You just say yes”. Amma could smell
something fishy. She asked “What’s the matter?” Mahesh narrated his story. He
said “Amma, that poor thing was inside that shed full of cobwebs. Please can we
keep him at home?” Amma said let me first have a look at him. All of them went
inside Mahesh’s room. Amma saw the little thing and thought that it was really
in a pitiable condition. She told the children that they would have to convince
Appa. Mahesh pleaded to Amma. Amma said “Let Appa come. Don’t simply come up
with this thing as soon as he comes. He would be tired. I will give him hot
coffee and bring him to good mood. Then we will talk about this.” Mahesh
requested Amma to prepare pakoras as Appa would be surely in a happy frame of
mind after having is favourite pakoras.
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As per their plan, Amma started
the preparation for pakoras. Minakshi was happily writing something in her
notebook and erasing it with the magic rubber. The puppy kept Mahesh busy.
They decided to call the puppy Ganesh. The doorbell rang and everyone
prepared themselves. Mahesh opened his books quickly and started doing Maths
sums. Amma opened the door for Appa. Appa was already an hour late today and so
he was more tired than usual. He was surprised to see Mahesh doing his sums with
so much concentration and interest. Appa sat on the chair and opened his shoes.
Amma went inside the kitchen to prepare hot coffee and pakoras. Appa felt
something wet on his feet. He looked down to find Ganesh licking his feet. |
He
jumped out of his chair and started yelling. Amma quickly came from the kitchen.
Appa asked “Who brought this dog inside?”. Amma tried to cover up saying “I
don’t know from where it came.” Appa said “You don’t know. There is only one
door to go out and come in. How come you don’t know?” Minakshi hastily added
“Appa, Mahesh brought him from the shed. We wanted to tell you this after you
had coffee and pakoras.” Appa was very angry now. Amma tried explaining him how
much Mahesh was interested in keeping Ganesh. In the meanwhile Ganesh peed near
Appa’s legs. This increased his anger even more. Appa said “See the nuisance it
has done here. You people think it’s easy to keep a dog.” A scared Mahesh said
“Appa, he is a puppy not a dog.” Appa said “I know it’s a puppy. Do you even
know how to take care of a puppy? The dog needs to be given bath everyday and
taken out for walk thrice a day. Who will do all this? It has to be taught
manners otherwise he would be making the entire house dirty.” Mahesh suggested
that he would take up the responsibility. Amma added” When he is ready to take
up the responsibility let us give him a chance.” Appa explained Amma “Mahesh
would do his share of work for a few days after which he would find excuses to
get rid of the responsibility. Then they all would together give him the
responsibility.” Amma pleaded to atleast give him a chance. Finally Appa agreed
with so much protest only on the condition that Mahesh would be care-taker for
Ganesh.
For the next two days, Mahesh was
busy with Ganesh. Mahesh thought to himself that now he had Ganesh to play with.
He need not have to go and beg Raghav to include him in the team and get bullied
by him. But hardly did he know that his entire play time would be consumed in
doing all sorts of odd jobs for Ganesh. Mahesh had to get up 5.a.m in the
morning instead of 6 as he had to take Ganesh out for a walk. This was his
biggest pain. After coming home, he himself got ready to go for school. After
his school, his responsibility was to give Ganesh a bath under Amma’s guidance.
By the time Ganesh got ready, Mahesh was already tired. But he had to do his
homework. There was spelling mistakes in his English homework and all the Maths
sums went wrong because he was sleepy while doing the homework. He got scolding
from Amma and was made to do his homework again. In the evening, he had to take
Ganesh out for walk again. When they entered home, Amma screamed at Mahesh as
Ganesh’s legs were full of mud and the drawing room was already dirty by
Ganesh’s muddy legs. Mahesh was made to wash Ganesh’s legs and clean the drawing
room also. The entire schedule had made Mahesh very tired.
On the third day, he told Amma
that he had too much of homework so he cannot take out Ganesh for a walk. Amma
said “If you had so much homework then why were you watching TV for 2 hrs.”
Mahesh took out another fake reason for not taking Ganesh for walk. “Amma, I am
having stomach ache.” Amma understood that he was just cooking up reasons but
someone had to take Ganesh for walk. When Appa returned from office, Amma
requested him to take out Ganesh for a walk. Appa replied “Didn’t I tell you
that after few days Mahesh would not do this work. I had already told you that I
won’t do it.” Amma said “Atleast he learnt his lesson. Please take the dog for
walk else it might pee inside the house.” Appa was upset now. He said “Your poor
husband has come home after a day long work. Instead of offering coffee, you are
asking him to give the dog a walk.” Amma was left with no choice. She decided to
do the needful today. While she took Ganesh out, he suddenly ran towards another
dog. Amma saw that the big dog started licking Ganesh and showering all her
love. Amma understood that it was Ganesh’s mother. When Amma reached home Mahesh
looked all around her for Ganesh. “Amma where is Ganesh?” demanded Mahesh. Amma
replied “On the way Ganesh found his mother, so I left him with her. Both of
them were very happy. It’s best for Ganesh to be with his mother rather than
with us.” Mahesh was a little sad that Ganesh was not with him anymore.
As he sat thinking about the
entire episode, suddenly something struck him. He ran inside the study room and
took out the magic rubber from Minakshi’s pencil box. Minakshi started
screaming. Amma came to the study hearing the screams. Minakshi complained
“Amma, the magic rubber is mine. He snatched it from me.” Mahesh said “No, the
deal was in exchange of keeping Ganesh. Since Ganesh doesn’t live here anymore
the deal no longer holds valid”. Minakshi argued “No the deal was that I would
support you in keeping Ganesh at home in exchange for the rubber which I did.”
Mahesh said “No way. It’s unfair I don’t have Ganesh and I don’t have the rubber
too. That’s not possible”. Saying this he ran away from the room with his magic
rubber.
Contributing Story Teller:
Vrinda Iyer
iyer.vrinda@gmail.com
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