Dayaram felt as though he had come upon the wealth of the world. Tilottama’s lotus face was lit up. He had never seen her so happy. Seeing him she moved towards him endearingly and said, ‘Where have you been out in the night?’
Dayaram was delirious and said, ‘I had gone to an assembly. How are you feeling now? I hope you are not in pain?’ Tilottama looked at him, amazed. ‘How did you know? My chest is being pierced by a shooting pain.’
Translated from the Hindi by M. Asaduddin
Turf War1
By appearance Tommy looked quite hefty; when he barked he could burst people’s eardrums. His gait was such that on dark nights people mistook him for a donkey, but his valour was proven in the battlefield. A couple of times when the lumpen elements in the market offered him a challenge, he descended on the arena to smash their pride, and eyewitnesses say that as long as he fought, he fought strongly, his tail dealing more blows than his nails or teeth. It couldn’t be said with certainty who had won the fight in the end but since the other party had to ask for reinforcements, then, according to the laws of the battlefield, it seemed reasonable that the victory trophy should go to Tommy. On that occasion, Tommy acted pragmatically and bared his teeth, which was a requirement for truce. But since then he had stopped engaging with such unprincipled adversaries.
Tommy was peace-loving, but the number of his enemies increased by the day. His peers were jealous of him because he was lean instead of roly-poly. The troop in the market envied him because he did not allow any bones to escape his grip. He woke up early in the morning and licked all that was left over in the leaf plates in front of the sweetshop and chewed all the bones left in front of the abattoir. Thus, surrounded by such a large number of enemies, Tommy’s life was full of difficulties. Months would pass till he came by a meal that would fill his belly. Several times he had had such a longing for a heavy meal that he had filled his belly with dubious stuff, and the consequences had been grave. For several days, he suffered from a severe ache, not in his stomach but in his back. Having learnt his lesson he began to follow the path of restraint. Though restrained, his longing did not stop. He wanted to go to a place filled with prey—there should be hare, antelopes and sheep grazing in the field with no one to look after them, and no rivals to offer him a fight. There should be shady trees for his rest and sweet river water to slake his thirst. He would kill them at his will, have his meal and go into deep sleep. Everyone around that place would be afraid of him and accept him as their king. Slowly, he would be so powerful that no jealous rival would have the courage to step into his area. One day, lost in such sweet dreams, Tommy had left the main road and was passing through a lane when he had an encounter with a gentleman dog. Tommy wanted to walk past him, but the gentleman was not as peace-loving as Tommy. He pounced on Tommy and caught him by his snout. Tommy fell at his feet and cringed, ‘For God’s sake let me go. I take this oath that I won’t step here again. It was my ill luck that I had entered your area.’ But that cruel and vain creature did not show him the slightest mercy. Defeated, Tommy began to whine like a donkey. Hearing this commotion, several leaders of the mohalla gathered there, but instead of showing mercy to the oppressed they began to cut their teeth on him. Such unjust treatment broke Tommy’s heart. He left the scene with his life. The cruel animals chased him for a long distance. There was a river before him. Tommy jumped into the river to save his life.
It is said that every dog has his day. Tommy’s day came when he jumped into the river. He had jumped into it to save his life, but he came upon a pearl. Swimming across the river he reached the other bank, and saw his long-cherished dream taking shape into reality.2
It was a huge field. As far as the eyes could see, it was all lush green. One could hear the cackle of rivulets and the melody of waterfalls. If there were clusters of trees at places there were also sandy expanses. All in all, it was a fascinating site.
There were animals with sharp claws. Seeing them Tommy’s heart trembled. But they didn’t care for him. They fought among themselves, their blood flowing. Tommy realized that he could not challenge these fearful beasts physically. He thought of a clever strategy. When one of the two fighting animals looked injured and vanquished, Tommy would pounce on it and run away with a piece of meat which he relished alone. Drunk in the happiness of victory they ignored him.
Tommy’s good days had returned. It was Diwali every day. Neither jaggery nor wheat was scarce. Every day he had a new catch under the trees. He hadn’t even imagined such heavenly happiness. He had reached heaven not by dying but by living.
In a short period, eating nutritious food injected new energy into him. His body became agile and well-rounded. Now he began to hunt smaller animals on his own. The animals were alerted to this and made efforts to turn him out from there. Tommy played a new trick. Sometimes he said to one enemy, ‘That enemy of yours is planning to kill you.’ To someone else he would
