The beep, the bark and the puchuk........

It was a warm winter day in Pune, as the sun tried to hit the middle of horizons; he inquisitively and carefully looked around for food near his favorite dabha on the highway. Alas, he was not as lucky as his other mates who will be fed to death all the fat rich food in air conditioned rooms. He, like million others in India is a road side habitant whose daily routine is spent in finding food.

He looked into the infinity, as he munched on the bony remains of what was once a rooster, his food now. He is new to this place; he belonged to what they called Bangalore. He lived by highway, there as well. If not for the unfortunate incidents in his life he would be having a gala time with all the girl friends around him who would be more than excited to have a fling with him; and marriage is just alien to him.

He is feeling nostalgic now; he is missing those days where he used to do nothing but sing at the top of his voice for all the day and hang out on streets with his friends all the night, scaring the shit out of anyone passing by him. He was missing those days where he used to pick those verbal fights with those rich. There was no single moment without a fight, such a belligerent character he was and proudly so. The fight could be for any reason ranging from a leg of a chicken to a girl friend; and for that matter there can be no reason at all, but just a fight. He was sure, he enjoyed those days, his youth, where he slept with anything close to be female in his society, until the disaster stuck his race.

He realized that life is not a bed of roses, especially on Bangalore highway. He never used to understand five lanes of horn blaring, light flashing Indian traffic where rules, if they ever existed, were a rarity. He and his whole race were never in terms with the cab and truck drivers who have the skill and audacity of air force pilots and whose only aim in life is to overtake and who follow the maxim -to slow is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat; with all the vigor and determination of a soldier in a war.

His bad time started when his father was knocked down to death by a truck when trying to follow his mother and his mother expired, knocked down by speeding car when she was trying to have a last look of her husband. Slowly, almost all of his family members started to disappear and then his friends, girl friends and ironically all of them, except for him have succumbed to the war called crossing the highway. And when he tried the feat for the first time in his life, he was hit by a car and flew and fell on a truck and when he regained his consciousness, all thanks to the nice kick on the ass by the truck driver, he realized that he was in Pune.

Pune was no different, it seems people here as well are going extinct when they try to cross the highway, he realized that within an hour. He then took an oath that, no matter what, he never in his life would cross the highway. Life is going on well; he enjoyed his exclusivity, as there was no competition, until his animal instincts took the better of him. That night, after his dinner, his urge to mate has reached its biological peak, thanks to 3 months of sexual inactivity. He became restless until he sensed a female on the other end of highway, he knew he should not cross, but love ke liye saala kuch bhi karne ka hain, after all, he thought, pyaar kiya tho darna kya? He accumulated all the courage he had and headed towards the other end of the highway.....


Screeeeeech, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, wooow bow wow bow, puchuk.......


The next day's news paper read " Ramu, the last Indian dog, reared by the Lash da Dabha's owner, has been killed when he was knocked down by a speeding cab when he tried to cross the highway, no one knows why the dog tried to cross the road. As claimed by the people working at the dabha, Ramu was an intelligent dog and never tried to cross the highway. Following the incident the animal rights activists, staged a rasta rokho and set ablaze a few passing taxis. The dead body of the dog was cremated in the nearest cemetery......"