Dhopash!

It was just this morning that I was thinking that the latest monsoon trend in my small town – in the suburbs of Kolkata – seems to be slipping on the ground. I hear random people slipping in their bathroom, or the veranda or even in their kitchen. Even the lane in front of my house has got so slippery that I almost saved myself from losing my balance the other day.

But I couldn't save myself for long. Visiting D’s house this afternoon, I slipped in front of her house and proved that the growing trend is, after all, true.

Here is how it happened.

I was never much of a pet-lover. My Dada once received a parrot as a birthday present from a cousin of mine. But Maa gave the ultimatum of one week – either the bird goes or we. Dada chose himself and his little sister over the bird. In Maa’s defense she said that birds kept in cages are not a good omen for the household.

The next pet in our house was a series of fish for my fish bowl. The first pair of goldfish died within a week. The next types – tiny and nameless (at least to me) survived – in turn – for about six months. Then one day I found the last three dead, all at once. I felt so sad that decided not to keep any more.

And I was never much of a dog lover. But I did warm up to a particular one that I named Bhulu, even though it turned out to be a “she”. I didn’t change her name. So, she was a she-dog named Bhulu. But she betrayed me after being fed from my hands for months. I know many dog-lovers out there will say that dogs are the most loyal of animals ever. And I am sure Bhulu had her reasons too. But for me, who is usually cold towards anything bigger than a rabbit, it was enough.

Anyway, after much digressing, here is how I fell.

I was trying to maneuver one of D’s dogs, aptly named lyadh-khor, and before I could understand what was happening while getting down from the rickshaw, I found myself on the ground, on the slippery mud. And all my BFF could do was to laugh out loud – LOL being her favourite phrase.

Thankfully I didn't get much hurt. But it made me wonder that may be there is something called fate. Just when I was being smug about saving myself from falls, did I get the fall of my day to remember that there is One smarter than the smartest among us!