Tags

, , , , , , ,

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost – Gilbert Chesterton

There is a window besides my computer. Most of the time when there is a power cut, I sit and watch the world from there. There is an unoccupied plot near our house. One fine day in December, there was this dog which was pregnant came and halted there. After an hour of howling it delivered four pups. Window

December was so cold at that point of time. The mother had difficult time keeping the pups warm. Adding to the misery was a surprise shower. The dog and the pups were howling the whole night. Unable to bear that, my mom took the cardboard box which came with our fridge and placed it above the mother and pups. The howling stopped for a while.

The next few days were playful for the family. They used to play, trying to walk and do all sort of fun activities. In three days one of the pups fell sick. And it died eventually. The mother knew it but was not able to do anything. The crows started to smell it and came attacking for the meat of the dog. The mother was fighting with crows for at least 5 hours and the siblings of the pup tried to wake it up in the meantime oblivious of the fact that their brother has left this world. We tried to shoo away the crows and finally succeeded. The dog and the other pups left the place that day. We removed the dead pup and municipality took care of the rest.

That is not the end of the story. Till today, I see the siblings walk up to the place and see if their brother is there. The search here and there and then leave. Probably for them he just went missing. I never saw the mother dog again.

I hated that I was not able to do anything. I am not a dog person. I am scared of Missingthem. But knowing that someone is suffering and not able to do anything about it is the worst thing. I was in our CMBT bus stand last week. One pillar in the bus stand was full of “Went Missing” posters. There were kids from the age of four to adults to the age of seventy who went missing. The posters described them of their heights, colour of the dress they wore that day and other physical attributes.

None of the physical attributes mattered to me. I just saw the suffering of the people who put up the poster. What would have been in their minds when the put up the poster? Was it hope? Or have they already resigned to the fact that the person is gone forever? How many of them are still living in the doubt of whether the missing person is alive or dead? Are they kidnapped or trafficked out of the state or country?

The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to miss their loved ones. One day morning you are talking to them and the next day they go missing. What would have been in the minds of the people who run away from home? Were they thinking of making it big somewhere else rather than their native place and home? Or were they plainly lost hope in all of their friends and family?

There was a household I knew. There was a disagreement between the brothers at dinner time. The next day morning, the younger one left forever leaving the family guessing where he had gone. There was no news of him for three days which made them lodge a police complaint. It safely sleeps somewhere now. After seven years now, the family contacts each and every one in their relative with a seven year old photograph of the younger one to see if they had seen him. The family, friends of friends, relatives and friends of relatives, everybody was contacted. The younger one is yet to be found. It has been seven years since the elder one ate dinner at his home.

I can only hope the younger one had a good dinner at wherever he stays.