I am Dead!

Queeeek...... I heard a loud screeching sound coming from my right side. I was quite familiar with that sound, as I had heard that sound a number of times before this. As I tried looking in the direction from where the sound was coming, just before I could see anything, thud; I heard another banging sound, followed by a sense of pain on the right side of my body, my right ear had gone blank, and I couldn't hear anything, maybe because of that deafening sound.

After a while, I found myself standing on the side of a busy road, looking at my friends who had already reached the other side of the road. We were supposed to go to play in the newly dug soil, in the lands on the other side of the road, where huge machines were engaged in constant excavation, and had dug out yellow warm and moist soil, mounds of it. I, just like my friends, loved playing in soil, and freshly dug soil is just a treat for us, to play with. I saw my friends on the other side of the road shouting out to me. They were all shouting, and since it was too much traffic, I wasn't able to hear them properly, just see them shouting, in response, I too shouted.

I was waiting for the traffic to ease a little bit so that I could cross the roads. Gradually, I saw the number of vehicles falling, and knew that this is the only chance I could cross the road, or atleast, reach in the middle of it. Just before, I stepped down the footpath, my eyes got stuck in the middle of the road. One poor guy was lying unconscious in the middle of such a busy road. It appeared that I knew this guy. This black guy wasn't any of my friend's, but still, I strongly felt that I knew him. Taking a chance, I reached him and saw that poor guy lying on the road. The strong feeling of knowing this guy grew even stronger as I was staring at him from so close. Shiny black skin, white patches on the right foreleg, and a white coloured tip on the tail. What? Is it sounding odd? Why? What did you think I am? A human? A child? A man? If yes, then you're mistaken. I'm one, whom humans call one of their best friends, a dog, a playful street dog. With shiny black skin, white patches on the right foreleg, the tip of my otherwise black coloured tail too, was white. Atleast, I was famous among my friend circle due to that beautiful shiny black skin and that white tip on my tail. I too was quite proud as none of my friends had such a beautiful skin. Anyways, coming back to what I was talking about, seeing this guy, from so close, I was shattered. Shattered, not because of the similarity I and this guy had in the features, but, because this guy was dead now. I never had a chance to see myself such clearly to know each and every feature of my body, but had heard things from my mom, friends and relatives. The striking similarities in the features like the white patch on the leg, and the white tip on the tail had me thinking.

Anyways, the traffic started coming again, I took a look at this guy, and then saw a white patch on the upper side of the neck too. Though, I knew about the patch on my leg and the white tip of my tail, no one ever told me about a white patch on the upper side of my neck. This relieved me. I was now convinced that this poor guy has come from somewhere, and unfortunately has died here. I moved on to reach the other side of the road, where my friends had already moved on and were going towards the site of the excavation, the place where we used to play for hours and hours, and when we got tired, we used to sleep there, in the soft cool soil. There was a lethargy in their walking, as if they were waiting for me to catch up with them. I ran and reached them, and started shouting, telling them to hurry up as we had to reach the site and start playing. I was too excited to paly in the mounds of soil, dig it up with my claws, and then sleep in it to have a sunbath. This was one of my favourite activities. I asked them repeatedly but, none of them responded as if I wasn't there at all, or if they didn't hear me. I hurried my way and reached the site, and saw mounds of freshly dug soil. I didn't feel the need to dig up the soil, so, I went there and sat down on the top waiting for my friends to reach there. After a while they all came, but no one seemed to be in a mood to play. They all sat down, as if they were in sorrow of that guy's death in the middle of the road. I too felt bad about that poor guy, and thus, didn't want to force them to play with me. I waited there and don't know when I slipped into deep sleep. I came out of my sleep with a loud sound, and as I saw in that direction, the huge machines came back with loads of newly dug soil. I ran away from there, and the machines offloaded the soil on the top of the mound. I then reached my friends, who were still sitting silent away from the mounds. As I reached them, I again shouted, but, again none of them responded. I reached and sat with them. One of them said, "He was a very playful guy." Others nodded in agreement, and still no one was noticing me, as if I wasn't there at all.

Disappointed, I ran back home, and no one still tried stopping me. While crossing by, I again watched that guy lying on the road, but now, in a very bad condition. It was unrecognisable, had been mashed up completely. I hurried to my mom. She too was crying. I asked her why was she crying, what happened, she didn't reply, as if she didn't hear me. I found it odd as no one replied to me, as if I was not there. I wanted to cry, cry a lot, so ran towards the market, to the jalebi stall. Did I tell you I love jalebis a lot, in the evenings, when people come here, I get to have some. The shopkeeper is a gentle man. He too gives some to me, when he prepares it, hot jalebis with oozing hot sugar syrup, yum. But, for now, it was still not open, it is still afternoon. I went there and sat under the stall on the handcart. I don't remember when I passed into a deep sleep. All the sorrows gone, it was pretty silent there, no sounds, no one disturbing me, nothing. Then suddenly, I woke up, it was evening and the owner had come, and started preparing his stall. I sat down there, away from the stall, waiting for him to start preparing hot jalebis, and give some to me. He worked and worked, in between looking around, as if he was looking for someone. He has been talking to me ever since I started coming here, though, I didn't understand what he used to say, but, he talked to me everyday, and after that, he used to give me hot jalebis. Today, he didn't talk to me, as if I was not there. He made jalebis, took a few out and kept it aside. I waited and waited that he will give it to me, but he didn't. This was turning out to be a very bad day. Everyone ignoring me. I ran away from there too. Back home, I found everyone surrounding my mum. I ran to check out what happened. As I reached them, I heard them consoling my mum. And my entire life came crashing in front of me. They were trying to console my mother about my death. I was still alive. I shouted and shouted, no one heard. This was when I realized that they all were correct. It was me who had died on the road. That was the reason the body that lied down on the road appeared so similar to me. I had no words to tell how I felt. I had nothing to do, no friends, no one who could see me, talk to me.

I was dead!

P.S.: Every year thousands of stray animals - dogs, cats and other animals die after getting hit or run over by our vehicles. While it is not possible for us to avoid these accidents every single time, but we can still try avoiding this as much as possible. Even if you are involved in such an accident, please consider the life/death of such an animal with compassion, and if the animal is injured, please try getting in touch with some NGOs working towards such causes, and get the the animal hospitalised as soon as possible. Even if the animal dies on the spot, please show some respect and if possible, move the animal's body away from the spot (if the accident happened on the road), so that the body is not run over by other vehicles, and, if that too is not possible, please inform some NGO or atleast the Municipal corporation to remove the body of the animal from the spot. Indian Animal Forum is one such awareness group working towards the welfare of stray and pet animals. IAF's compassionate volunteers are always there to help animals in need. In case you come forward with such a situation, please get in touch with IAF volunteers. You can reach out to them via their Facebook Group (which is a closed one, but you can apply for a membership and it will get approved almost in no time and you can report such emergencies). If you can not connect with them via FB, and want to help an animal in need, you can let me know via a comment on this post, and I will try getting in touch with IAF admins and volunteers, ASAP.