Jadha, what’s wrong with you? And Jadha what’s wrong with me? Two negatives make positive and two Jadhas thus solve the problem between us. If there had been no neighbours’ cars I swear I would have broken your head. I just did that a few years back, in fact, I killed it, and I am never sorry if it was your distant kin for I swear you can’t be. Dogs at Kanglung cannot have relatives in Thimphu. Will they?
Back in Kanglung, I had bought a compound bow after one prominent civil servant nagged me to become a gentleman. He thought a man without a bow set is not a man. I bought it and on the very first week he enrolled me into his team. The novice player could not find the wooden target and my arrows landed elsewhere, either broken or lost in the bush. When the day ended, I was tired and when I calculated the broken or lost arrows I learned I had lost the price of two quintals of rice to feed me all through the year. I lost the spirit and feeling dead tired I went to sleep like a log. The log stirred disturbed when dogs started to howl around my house unceremoniously of my first lost game. When the howling did not stop, I had no choice but to pick up the bow, fix the broken arrow to the string and released it. I wonder whether other dogs learned the lesson and shut their mouths because I wasn't there. Searching for the empty jute bag, dragging the dead dog and carrying it to dump took hell lot of a time.
And now, at least I am kind enough to address as ‘you’ although you disturbed my very good night sleep. At first, I grumbled under the blanket and proclaimed this inherent word. Later thinking of you as just an innocent animal, I confessed my stupidity and proclaimed the same word to myself. Then I was not so angry to pull the string of the same bow. I had spent enough on butter lamps for forgiveness at various monasteries. And even throwing a stone at you could empty my thin wallet from negotiating with the automobile workshops repairing the neighbours’ cars. Maybe, I thought, you had the reason to bark and I could not help comparing you to Mr. Humjaiga although the reason of seeing evils was not ruled out.
Mr. Hamjaigo for his wrong doing was punished by letting him spend the night on the roof on a chilly night naked. His master, concerned about Mr. Hamjaiga and even thinking he could be dead from frost climbed the roof early morning assuming to see the corpse. But the naked man was seen sweating profusely and on the reply to his master on what he did to save from the cold only said he carried and arranged all the stone boulders covering every area of the roof. And I thought, you had the similar reason to keep yourself warm by barking all through the night while human beings like me had the choice of sleeping peacefully under the thick imported blankets. And therefore, I uttered Jadha to myself and allowed you to do your warming up exercise without any further complaints. Also, I am thankful to you for keeping my wallet intact though I sure know this old bone could have missed your head in that pitchy dark.
Now bark peacefully and I shall only wish you the best. If you have any complaints from other people, tell your friends to flock around my house. I will do my duty to go to the town and buy the ear-plugs.
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