Gopi

*To make the reading experience better listen to the song “Unnoda Vazha” by Anna Katharina while reading. 

With “Unnoda Vazha” by Anna Katharina playing in his ears, Dhyan starts his walk towards the park; he tries to jump on the Hopscotch squares that filled the road in front of his rented flat like a stuck Tetris game. While he crosses the main road, he comes across this beautiful house named "Akashaganga." He stops and sees the cage filled with birds and fish in the aquarium outside the house. With the right colour combination and perfect plants, the house had its exterior aesthetics set right. While gazing through the wavy patterns on the walls, Dhyan saw a brown thing move on the balcony; that brown thing was none other than a playful golden retriever with beautiful amber eyes, and exactly at that moment the lines "Unn Kannil vaazhgiren" from the song playing in his ears peaked. Dhyan waved his hands, and the dog started barking, to which its owner, a woman in her mid-40s, came out to the balcony. She saw Dhyan, and suddenly her face changed from being annoyed by the dog's bark to a mix of shock and blank face. Looking at her expression, Dhyan thought he shouldn’t stand there anymore and continued his walk towards the park.

 

Since his last encounter with the dog; Dhyan, everytime he crossed that house looked at the balcony, and waited for that beautifully shaped fur ball to appear. But he failed every time. One day, when Dhyan was crossing the house with no hope of seeing that dog, a bark of happiness filled his ears, and a smile spread across his face. Dhyan looked up to the balcony and found the dog jumping around, looking at him. There was a man in his late 40s with the dog, asking it to calm down. Dhyan waved at the man and asked, "Hi uncle, what’s the dog’s name?" He replied that his name is "Gopi." Dhyan smiled and started calling "Gopiiii…. Gopiii" "Gopiii." Then Gopi started barking and jumping around even more. Suddenly, he ran inside the house and got his squeaky bone toy; Uncle saw that and told Dhyan he wants to play with you, come up. Dhyan got excited. He ran and took the stairs to the balcony. On the way, he said hi to all the birds that were chirping in the cage. He reached the balcony, and Gopi didn’t even wait for Dhyan to catch his breath; he straight away jumped on him. Gopi was one and a half years young, and with his tail waging like a helicopter, he was filled with lots of bouncy energy. His fur looked like a wave of mud with an anime filter. He got down soon and ran towards his toy bone and got it to Dhyan. Uncle told Dhyan to throw it, but he didn't; instead, he sat down on his knees and placed it on the back of his neck, and Gopi just jumped on his back and held the bone in his mouth. Uncle smiled and reached a level of happiness where his eyes where moist; It was only time it would have turned into drops of tears, he shouted "Sudha! Ill ba, nodu Gopi yen maadtidaane ("Sudha! Come here, look what Gopi is doing"), and a woman from inside came out drying her hands with a towel, saying "Yen ri?" (What?)" She sees Gopi on Dhyan’s back and starts laughing and says, "Yen maadthidiya Gopi Akshu benn mele?" (What are you doing on Akshu’s back, Gopi?) And then she looks at Dhyan’s face and realises that it was not Akshu; all of a sudden, she gives the same blank expression that Dhyan saw on her face the day he saw Gopi for the first time. Listening to the name “Akshu” from his wife’s mouth made the upward curve on uncle’s face lose the lift on the either ends resulting in a downward curve, he somehow pulled the ends and with a serious tone said "Sudha, avn namm Akshu alla (Sudha, he is not our Akshu)". Sudha Aunty took a short breath and asked Dhyan, "Yenappa ninn hesaru?” (“Son, What is your name?”) Dhyan replied, "Nann hesar Dhyan, aunty," (“My name is Dhyan, aunty” ) and she continued with a fusillade of questions like, "Where are you from?" What do you do? Where do you stay? Seeing aunty ask so many questions, Uncle stopped her and told her, "Sudha avnig mane wallag aadru kursi maatadsu (Sudha, at least let him sit inside and then you can continue with your questions."

 

 

Dhyan sat on the sofa, uncle and aunty sat on the chair, uncle asked Dhyan, "Do you want some water?" to which Dhyan replied, "No, uncle." Gopi slept on the carpet with his doll, which Dhyan later got to know was called "Twinkle." Sudha aunty looks at Dhyan, smiling at Gopi, and says, "He played with Akshu like he played with you today and slept with Twinkle beside him." Dhyan smiled and replied, "Is it?" Then he went on to ask, "By the way, aunty, who is Akshu?"

Then Uncle replied with a low voice, "He’s our son Akash; we called him Akshu," and Aunty continued, "You look like him." Dhyan asks, "Where is he now?" "What is he doing?" Uncle replied, "He left us last year." Dhyan replies, "Sorry, uncle, aunty." All three share a moment of silence. Aunty breaks the silence by asking Dhyan, "You drink coffee or tea?" Dhyan replies, "No, Aunty, I don’t want anything; I will leave now; I have to go for a walk." Listening to the word "walk," Gopi gets up and starts being Gopi. Aunty asks Dhyan, "Can you also take Gopi with you?" Dhyan replies, "Yes, aunty." Sudha aunty attaches the leash to Gopi’s collar, and Uncle and Gopi go for a walk with Dhyan.

 

Do you let me know how you felt after reading.

Also, if you liked this; please read my other blogs & stories too.

-Darshan Shanbhag  

The Walk of Cats

EXT NIGHT

29 December 2022: After having dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Anne and D, along with their friends, are going back to their Airbnb stay in Chennai. They decided to walk back to the stay because it was close by.Anne and D’s friends suggest they order ice cream before they start walking so that by the time they reach the Airbnb, the ice cream is already there. So everyone orders the ice cream flavours that they like and have never tried before and starts walking towards the Airbnb.

Anne and D walk together in front, with their couple friends behind them.

D wanted to ask a question that had been circling his curious mind since the day Anne told him she liked cats. As D was a dog person and didn’t get a chance to understand or experience how it feels to be with cats, he asks Anne:

 

D: Hey Anne, I have a question for you.

 

Anne: Go ahead.

 

D: Why do you like cats?

 

Anne: Cats, that’s an interesting question.

 

D: Hmm.

 

Anne: Actually, I used to hate cats.

 

D: Interesting, then?

 

Anne: There’s a story behind it.

 

D: Accha!

 

Anne: Haan. So a few months ago, I saw a kitten on the road that had been abandoned by its mother. I don’t know what made her do that. But yeah, I saw this kitten. It was injured in places while trying to move out of the waste thrown around it. It was white and bright. It looked as if a pearl had emerged from a dustbin. Lying near an electric pole, it cried for help. My friends and I brought it to our PG. That’s also an interesting story.

 

D: Ohhh! I am all ears.

 

Anne: So we brought the cat to the PG, but no pets were allowed there. (Anne giggles.)  Then what we did was wrap the kitten in a shawl and put it in our backpack. Everything was set except for the part where the cat might purr and the warden would get alerted. And that is when my genius comes in. I started watching some cat videos on YouTube and walked towards my room with my roommate and the kitty in my backpack.

 

D: hahaha. Are you serious?

 

Anne: Yes, it felt like I was on a mission like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

 

D: Wah! My Ethan hunt; aur uske baad?

 

Anne: Uske baad kya, we entered the room and kitten ko bahar nikaala.

 

D:Accha!

 

Anne: Haanji. Till that particular moment, I hated cats, but the cute cat changed my mind; he was so happy after we cleaned his wounds and looked after him.

 

D: He’s a HE.

 

Anne: Yes, a he. He used to follow me around the room. He slept on the window sill at night, and by the time it was morning, he would be on the bed, sleeping near my head. I would see a zoomed-in and blurred version of his tiny paws as I opened my eyes every morning. Acting like a head heater, he had become my everything for a few days. We decided to take him to the shelter, and later he found a home. I was very happy for him.

 

D: Oh! Did you meet him recently?

 

Anne: No,(taking a brief pause)I can’t. He is dead.

 

D: (*shocked*) What happened? How?

 

Anne: So he fell from the balcony of his home and .

 

D: (*D interrupts) That’s sad.

 

Anne: Anyways, that is how I met him and started liking cats, and whenever I see cats around, I get excited.

 

D: Yes, I have seen that excitement of yours whenever you see or talk about cats. By the way, did you name him?

 

Anne: Yes, I named him "Hope." He came into my life at a point where I needed that the most, and his entry gave me new hope. But once he went to his other home, the one who took care of him named him "Moon."

 

D: Oh! I see.

 

Anne: There was another cat there too, where Moon found his home. Here, look at this—this is him (Anne turns on her phone and shows a picture of Hope/Moon).

 

D: He's so cute! (🥹D’s face at that moment)

 

Anne: I know, right!

 

D: Yes, by the way, what is it that you liked about Hope?

 

Anne: Like?

 

D: I can give you an example: "Do you know Dhruv Sehgal?"

 

Anne: No.

 

D: Have you watched the show Little Things?

 

Anne: I have, but only a few episodes.

 

D: Great! So the hero of the show is Dhruv Sehgal, who is also the writer of the show.

 

Anne: Oh.

 

D: Yes, So he was asked in an interview that why did he like cats? And he told that they are mysterious.

 

Anne: Oh! So in that way, I like just the way they are and the little things they do.

 

D: Oh, I think you know this—that cats gift their caretakers a gift like fish or anything else they find and can carry in their mouth.

 

Anne: Yes, I do know this.

 

D: Hmm! (D smiles and, in his mind, thinks about the beautiful walk and conversation he just had.)

 

*Abhi Na Jao Chhoda Kar playing in the background

(Both reach the stay and disperse to their rooms)

-Darshan Shanbhag

Window Connection

 The dark night started to fade into different shades of orange when I got off the overnight bus I took from Dandeli to come back to Bengaluru. It was somewhere around 5:45 a.m. when I reached Bengaluru, and with a backpack and two handbags full of clothes, I walked towards the Kempegowda Bus Station. There I saw a bus to Ramamurthy Nagar waiting for me; the driver was revving the engine as if about to race, which he eventually did and came in first as there was no competition. I got into the bus, scanned the QR code to validate my pass, and took the window seat.

 

After a while, a few other passengers got in, and the much-anticipated race started. As the bus moved forward, its windows vibrated, creating a sense of music our teeth create on a winter morning, and that is when I heard someone singing, not so clearly but close to a whisper in a silent room. After concentrating hard on that voice, I found out that it was none other than the old man sitting in front of me; he was wearing a green and white striped woollen monkey cap and had wrapped himself in a grey shawl. I couldn’t see his face, but the extension of his spectacles made a good foreground on the cap he was wearing. The swift movement of the bus on the few good roads in Bengaluru helped intensify his voice a bit, which helped my ears identify the song he was singing. The song he was singing was "Chhu kar mere mann ko Kiya tuney kya ishaara." It felt like he was missing his special someone, and it was evident in his voice. After singing few lines he paused for a while and I felt it was my duty to keep Kishore Kumar vibe alive in the bus at this hour, so I started singing with a mellow voice trying to match the Old man’s voice "Kehna hai, Kehna hai, aaj tumse a Pehli baar o o o tumhi toh laayi o Jeevan may mere.." and the old man started moving his head it was like an approval from him. I ended up singing the few lines I knew, and the vibe we created continued to fill the air of near silence inside the bus, and its cradle-like movement just synced with our voices. Then he sang "Roopa Tera Mastaana" to which I replied with the song dear to my father, "Neele Neele ambar par." As my singing ended, we both sat quietly for a while, and I started observing him. He had a black backpack, and I too had one with me at the same time. I wondered if he was my older version who had travelled back in time to this very moment. My thoughts just started to build up, but the bus stopped; it was the old man’s stop.

 

He took his backpack and got down, and while getting down, he gave me a look with a smile as if we knew each other before. He was wearing specs with high-powered glass, and I could see the colour of his eyes clearly. Maybe this short journey was meant to be.

Thank you for reading.

Darshan Shanbhag

P.S. My brain played the song “Ore manwa tu toh bawara hai” while writing this.