Indian Unfolding: Musings Of A Small Town

The dog I grew up with

I was a bit relieved by the news of dad's older brother passing away.

He had his wife and kids on a house arrest all his life. He tried to cage us too, but thankfully for dad, we got out.

I never would've left home, if it wasn't for him and his orthodox rules.

When I moved to college, I left behind my best friend growing up. He was four days old, and we had rescued him from another street dog. Mom decided that he had nowhere to go and we must take care of him. We called him 'whiskey'. It was funny you see because no one drinks alcohol in the house except for my uncle. And he despised him.

So much that he stopped bothering us about loitering outside all day, as long as whiskey was outside with us too.

He tried getting rid of him too, but the neighbours intervened. Whiskey was there to stay.

Until we grew up and went away. Mom tried to take care of him, but couldn't keep up with it.

Six months after I left they let go of him. Every time that I come back here, I think about him. He must be very old now.

Old as uncle was the last time I saw him. I told his son that he must learn how to drive the car now.

I got out at the station and saw his car parked out front. His son got out of the driver's seat and hugged me.

As we drove back, I complimented him on his driving. He said it's easy to drive here, barely any traffic in this town. He parked in front of the barber's shop. Mom had called earlier and said that I should get my head shaved.

I went inside, 'Lokesh hair salon', like most places here, hadn't changed one bit in all these years. He knew about uncle, and didn't ask what hairstyle I wanted.

In the middle of Lokesh shaving my head and asking me all about my life in Delhi, an old dog slowly crept up beside me and sat there.

I looked at my cousin and he broke into a smile, he loved whiskey just as much as me. After we fondled him for a while, my cousin decided that he will take him home.

"If it weren't for dad, I wouldn't have let him leave in the first place" he said.