Life Survived and Death………………………Postponed

There is a dilapidated haveli like structure at the outskirt of the town, Sundar Nagar. It has been a long deliberately ignored and isolated part of Sundar Nagar as the dilapidated haveli like structure exists with its mysterious past. Scaring rumors about the age old haveli have been deeply rooted in the culture and life of the people living in Sundar Nagar. It is out of this long rooted scare and mysterious conditions in the haveli, people prefer to be away from this decaying structure and never allow their children and other members of the family to visit that structure or go there on any other cause. Thus, this haveli has been leading a silent life for many decades.

For many years, the interiors of the haveli have not felt the presence of any human being. Nor any human or non human sound could disturb the silent interiors of the Haveli. In ancient times Renowned Nawabs and their dynasties ruled this haveli and now what rules it is a grave silence where human beings fear to go. It seems that every day dawns on Sundar Nagar purposefully excluding the dilapidated haveli. For the first time since a long period, it seems that, the day has dawned on the decaying haveli. It has brought it into light and dared to disturb the long ruling silence with an arrival of a pregnant bitch that gives birth to four robust and charming puppies. The noisy presence of the puppies have shaken the very roots of the silence which thought herself to be an unconquered queen of this ancient structure.

Coming and going out of the haveli in search of food for herself and her puppies has been a daily routine of the bitch. In the absence of the mother, naughty puppies loiter in all the isolated dark corners of the haveli and sometimes they dare to go up on the ceilings of the haveli and make barking like sounds so that the world outside would take note of their presence. The sound of the puppies has succeeded in arresting the attention of the natives of the Sundar Nagar. When the bitch returns to the haveli, the puppies jump on her to suck milk. There is a rivalry among them to suck more milk. Happy days of the puppies just go on passing and it seems that haveli too is enjoying the happy company of the noisy and naughty puppies.

One day, the bitch comes at the afternoon and feeds the puppies and goes out in Sundar Nagar for her work. It is too late in the evening; the bitch doesn’t come back to the haveli. The puppies are anxiously waiting for their mother and never thought that they would never meet their mother hereafter. Whole night the puppies pass by making loud barking sound and eventually they go to bed with hope that their mother would return tomorrow morning and satisfy their hungry stomach. The day dawns and gradually the sun starts peeping through the decaying ceilings of the haveli yet, the bitch doesn’t return to the haveli. The puppies decide to go out in Sundar Nagar to find out their mother. All the puppies leave the haveli handing over the reins of the haveli to queen silence once again. They leave the haveli with hungry stomachs and get separated never to come together again.

The story of sudden departure of the bitch is revealed by one of the old gentlemen in town that Nagar Panchayat had undertaken the campaign of trapping the mad dogs and troubling dogs. Accidently or unknowingly the campaigners caught the bitch along with other mad dogs and took them away for further procedure. One of the puppies goes quite deep into lanes of Sundar Nagar and takes a pause at a huge bungalow. He gets enchanted by the beautiful exteriors of the bungalow and hopes that he would get something to eat here. The puppy dares to peep through the slightly open iron gate of the bungalow and sees that a beautiful girl is playing with her dancing doll in the front yard of the bungalow. The name of this girl is Rupa and she is beautiful like her name. While playing, she smells the presence of a cotton like creature standing at the gate as if he is giving a standing ovation to his new mistress. Rupa gets so much attracted towards this puppy and hurriedly she runs towards him and picks him, caresses him, takes him in and offers him some milk and food. Puppy becomes happy with the idea that he has got his caretaker.

Gradually Puppy succeeds in making special place for himself in the household of Rupa. All the members of the family love him and care him. They also organize a naming ceremony to name this Puppy. Unanimously they decide to call him by the name ‘Tommy’. Tommy becomes his identity and very soon he becomes one of the members of the family. The family becomes so habitual with his presence that slight absence of Tommy in the household marked with special and keen attention by all. He becomes a darling to all. When the father of Rupa returns from the office in the evening, he plays mischief with him by going through his legs making a little bit calmer barking sound. When Rupa’s father is lying on the bed after having meal, he sits beside the father and cleans his heels with his tongue as if he is paying respect to his master. When mother is in the kitchen, Tommy goes and holds her sari with his teeth and brings her in drawing room to play. Mother too develops an affinity with this little puppy. For Rupa, Tommy becomes a great companion. When Rupa is doing her studies, Tommy just sits beside her carefully sees what Rupa does. If any stranger knocks at the gate, Tommy goes and starts barking at him and prevents him from coming in. Playing with Rupa at the time of dusk is a great pastime for him. He misses her very much when she is in the school or away from him on account of any cause. When Rupa returns from the school in the evening, the first thing she does is that she straightly goes to Tommy and picks him up and kisses and caresses him. After having tea, Rupa and Tommy come out in the front yard to play. Chasing each other and playing hide and seek game are their favorite games. Sometimes Rupa chases him and sometimes Tommy does in return. During hide and seek game Tommy runs through the trees and bushes of the front and back yard of the bungalow and Rupa chases to find him out. They enjoy this game very much. It becomes their evening ritual and both cannot live without it. When the time of going to bed comes, Tommy instantly takes his position on the bed just beside his loving mistress.

One day, when Rupa is chasing Tommy in hide and seek game, Tommy secretly runs through the bushes of the backyard hiding himself behind and through the bushes he comes to the front yard. Till now Tommy’s life is confined in the interiors of the huge bungalow of Rupa. After seeing the main gate slightly open, he runs so quickly like blowing stormy wind through the gate and pierces through the gap between the front and back tires of a fully loaded truck. While chasing Tommy, Rupa arrives at the gate and sees Tommy piercing through the gap between the tires as if a speedy arrow pierces through its hard target. Rupa gets shocked and her whole body starts trembling with fear. She closes her eyes with sweaty palms and just imagines the picture which would be before her on the very next moment. She cannot bear that scenario with a lot of spreading blood and scattered pieces of Tommy’s cotton like body. Tears are about to fall and the whole face of Rupa becomes pale and scared unwillingly she starts sliding down the curtain of the palms which would have prevented her from seeing and witnessing the most ominous scene which she never thought of. Palms slide down gradually and Rupa slowly opens her eyes to see undesirable things happened. The fully loaded truck runs over a little Tommy but leaves him uninjured. Tommy reaches to such portion of the road between the front and back tires where nothing could harm him. Out of fear he shrinks his whole body and sits down with fear at the middle of the road. Within no time, the loaded truck runs over him untouched. Thus he gets escaped from the impending disaster. When Rupa opens her eyes, she gets shocked and felt on the top of the air to see that Tommy is quite safe and sitting at the middle of the road as if a sage is doing penance for years.

The tears rolling out of her eyes change its tragic colors and within no time turned out to be the tears of happiness. Rupa wasting not a single moment rushes towards him and picks him up and kisses him hundred times and caresses him releases a puff of air which says Life Survived and Death–––Postponed.

Rupa takes Tommy in hurriedly and narrates the whole incident to her parents. They get thrilled and instantly decide to appoint a gate security to avoid the unexpected exits of Tommy and recurrence of such ominous events which may cause a threat to the life of their darling cotton like creature.