An Evening's Adventure

“Ma,Vinu is calling, I’ve done the exercise and shall show it to you when I comeback”, Ashish shouted as he ran out of the house without waiting for his mother’s permission. It was exam time; Mrs. Awasthi had instructed her son in the morning only to stay at home and utilize his preparation leave to practice all the exercises prescribed in the syllabus.

“Look! They are so many here. Come on, let’s have fun”, Vinu was referring to the six new born pups of a lame stray bitch which was mostly the object of entertainment for these adolescent boys. An excited Ashish picked up one of the pups still sucking at its mother’s teat. The poor bitch who was still feeding the other five barked helplessly as she now stood up in her vain attempt to drive away the playful boys and Ashish laughed shamelessly with his friends as he moved swiftly with the whining pup in his hands.

There, at the house, Mrs. Awasthi was unhappy to find that her impish son had not completed the exercises she had planned for him, disappointed thus she decided to go and fetch him back as she knew that otherwise he was never going to make it back in time enough to complete his work.

Deciding to hide the whining pup so as to make the lame bitch move about in its search despite her inability Ashish jumped over through the low wall of the nearby park which was under construction and before he could dump the puppy in one of the many trenches dug around he himself got covered by a sack.

 A group of man swiftly tied his legs and without sparing another moment lifted up the helpless Ashish and made move to leave the park.

“Vinay, before leaving the house Ashu had said that he was going somewhere with you only. Where did you take him child? I want to take him back to home now as he has to prepare for the exam tomorrow.”, Mrs. Awasthi was now very cross with Vinu for despite all her asking, the boy was not able to give any clear cut information about the whereabouts of her son.

Now furious with Ashish, Mrs Awasthi decided to go back to the house and wait for him to return. Just as she was about to pass by the park she observed a couple of men carrying a loaded sack walking in hush. Curious about the movements of these men Ashish’s mother now started to observe them unwittingly as amongst these men she could unmistakably notice Ranbeer her old servant whom they had recently dismissed on account of misconduct.

Dumping their load near a heap of waste the men looked about and rushed to get their jeep. Intrigued, Mrs Awasthi decided to inspect the sack. On closer observation she could immediately recognize the darned green sock of right feet which she herself had mended for her son Ashish.

Now alarmed Mrs Awasthi wasted no time in untying the sack and relieving her son of captivity. Noticing with great anxiety that Ashish was in state of unconsciousness with a new born puppy clutched in his hand she barely managed to carry her son and the pup away from the waste dump.

Hiding herself and her son behind a wall, to her horror she watched those men coming back with a jeep which she realized was obviously meant to carry Ashish with them. She immediately realized that it must have been Ranbeer’s plan to avenge his dismissal. She could see them looking around while beating the empty sack on the waste of heap in desperation; to her relief soon the dusk settled and as people started pouring in for evening prayers in the nearby temple the kidnappers left immediately.

By now, Ashish on regaining consciousness was shocked to find himself and his mother lying behind the wall in the park. “What are we doing here ma?”, Ashish inquired of his mother in confusion. “I shall tell you later, lets go home for now”, collecting the pup and her son Mrs Awasthi made the move to get up.

“Whose puppy is this? It needs to be with its mom”, mother inquired looking at the new born pup with concern. Recollecting immediately all the incidents of the evening Ashish told his mother of how he had snatched the little one from its mother and had run away. Feeling guilty of himself he was now hardly able to hold back his tears. Moved at the realization of her son Mrs Awasthi embraced him and suggested that they both first go and return the pup to its mother.

The disabled bitch barked in disappointment on noticing her tormentor but as Ashish put the pup down both mother and son could notice the tears of thankfulness in the eyes of the canine; who was eagerly licking at Ashish’s stretched out palm.

“Where were you two, we have been looking for you since past one hour?”, it was Ashish’s father who on returning from shop to the house was shocked to find no one at home and on receiving the kidnappers’ call had gone berserk.

Listening to the whole story from Ashish and his wife Mr Awasthi instructed the two to go back home while he decided to go to the police station for registering complaint against Ranbeer.

Ranbeer was arrested by police and Mr and Mrs Awasthi were happy that there son was now safe.

Today was Sunday; every one was taking their afternoon rest. “Hey come the little pups have started to walk now!”, Vinu was hanging at the window of Ashish’s room. Picking up a packet Ashish rushed out of the room stealthily to avoid disturbing his parents who were fast asleep in their room.

Vinu was taken aback to see that, usually afraid of Ashish’s presence the canines jumped with joy as they saw him coming. The same Ashish who most of the time enjoyed inflicting torture on the stray animals,was laughing as he was feeding biscuits from his packet and playing with the bitch and her little ones.