I am Tyson & Other Stories
Raja Sharma
Copyright@2011Raja Sharma
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 1: I am Tyson
My name ought to remind humans of a boxer who ruled the boxing world for so many years but I am not a boxer. My name is the result of a mistake of human perception. They did not check me at the time of my birth and gave me a male name. The person who named me was really a duffer, which I later came to know.
When I had first realized that I had a physical existence in this world, I did not know how many brothers and sisters were sucking the milk of our mother. I could not open my eyes for about ten days but I felt the presence of my near and dear ones. I got familiar with the sounds made by my mother and my brothers and sisters but I was curious to see the creatures that often came there and made some strange sounds from their mouths. As I grew up, I came to know that they whistled and greeted us in their language which was very strange.
There was nothing much to do in those days: sucking the milk of our mother, sleeping, and giving ear to any strange sound, of course, with an element of fear. After a fortnight, the master of the house brought us onto the roof and kept in the sun. It was quite soothing and warm. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. At first everything was hazy but slowly I began to recognize the things around me. I had known my mother only by her smell but now I could see her furry glory. My two brothers and one sister were white and brown but I was black, but my tail had a patch of white. The world was new to me and I liked it.
I had not found any difference in early days but after about a month, I realized that we walked on four but creatures, our masters, called humans walked on their two legs. They had to bend down to pick me when they wanted to caress me or nuzzle me. I liked it, but one of them, an old man, stank. His breath had a strange odour and after many months I came to know that he smoked. I am still not able to understand why they light a rod and emit smoke from their nostrils. We never do anything like that.
After about one month, a person came to our house and picked me and my white brother. He kept us in a shoulder bag and walked out of the house. My mother kept on barking but he did not stop. We, my brother and I, were very frightened in the darkness of that bag. He started a machine, which I came to recognize, in the later years, as motorcycle. It was a ride full of uncertainty, fear, hope, and separation. My brother licked me and tried to console me. The ride lasted for a few minutes and then the machine was stopped.
When the bag was opened, mixed voices of many people greeted us. The senior most member of this new family was a professor. The carrier greeted him and addressed him with ‘Rajasir’. He picked me and kissed me. I liked him and I realized that his hands were softer than the hands of other people. His wife and two daughters were very happy.
“What is the name of this black one?” said the teacher.
“Tyson, Sir,” said the person who had brought us there.
“But, she is a female?”
“You can change the name,” laughed he.
“No, it is all right with me,” said my new master.
I felt relieved that they were not going to change my name because the sound T-Y-S-O-N was quite pleasing and I had begun to recognize it. My brother was named Bolton by our new master.
I am still very confused, though I am five years old now. In our first house, when they wanted to call me they would make a sound ‘Aai jaa’ but here our master, the teacher, makes sounds ‘Come Here’ and it is quite confusing. Sometimes guests come to our house and they make some other kinds of sounds which are quite new to us. They have a machine called TV and thousands of sounds come from that box. They look same, humans, but why they make so many different sounds is not understandable! We have different breeds, different colours, but we have one language and one sound. We belong to one kind but they call themselves one but they are always at loggerheads with one another.
From the very beginning I realized that our new master loved my brother more because he always kept my brother with him. Maybe his white colour and hairy body make him more presentable, or his male factor makes him so.
However, I love my master very much because he is very caring and loving. He keeps on giving us goodies to eat and never shouts at us. His daughters and wife are also very loving and they treat us like the members of their family. A person named ‘doctor’ comes from time to time and injects something into our bodies.
Our master is a very hard working man. He gets up very early in the morning and gets ready. He enters the classroom and then come some other people. He calls them ‘students’ and they begin to converse in that room for about an hour. I don’t understand why they come to him to talk to him. I see they give him some pieces of paper from time to time. One day I had torn one such paper and I was beaten by his wife. I gradually understood that those papers were useful because you can use those papers in the shops and they give you biscuits. Whenever his daughter, Sherry, goes out, I accompany her. She carries some pieces of papers with her and she gives those papers to people in shops. In return they give her many things like chicken, bread, eggs, biscuits, chocolates, etc. Now I don’t touch those papers if I see them in any of the rooms in our house. But when my master pulls some pieces of paper from his pocket and gives them to Sherry, my ears stand and I get ready because I smell something to eat. This is the most exciting thing in my life.
When I was about one year old, one day, I found a very attractive friend in the market. He liked me too. He followed me to our house. After that day, I began to meet him every day. Soon we were good friends and one day he made love to me. I liked it very much. After that day, when they tied me with a chain, I barked because I wanted to go out to meet him.
My brother, Bolton, had found a girlfriend and he began to go out with her. She was not good looking but he liked her. One day, he did not come back home and when he came at midnight; he was standing outside the locked door. He was crying, dirty and wounded. My master brought him inside the house and gave him food. After some time, it transpired that he had a fight over his girlfriend. He had fought with four powerful enemies.
After about three months, I felt very strange changes in my body. My stomach was fat and my teats were heavy. I felt movements inside my body. My master’s wife began to take proper care of mine. She began to give me more milk and more meat. I was happy but I did not know what was happening to me.
It was raining heavily that night and I was suffering from a very severe pain. I was crying. My master and his family were standing around me. My master’s wife had spread a soft mattress on the floor and ordered me to sit on that. At midnight I gave birth to four puppies. I cleaned them one by one and suckled them. I was very proud and overwhelmed. My master and others were happy too. They kept some hot food in front of me and I gobbled it up immediately. I was obviously very hungry after that strange and exhausting experience.
My brother, Bolton, did not come near me. He was standing beside my master. He had strange expressions in his eyes but he was afraid to come closer. My master was caressing his head and neck. That night I slept peacefully with my children.
Next morning, many people came to see my children. Like a proud mother, I thanked them by wagging my tail. They were chatting and showing their happiness by touching my children. I did not want them to touch my children because some of them were strangers but in the presence of my master I could not bark.
After a few days, my children opened their eyes and they began to follow me around the house. I would be walking like Queen Mother and four of them followed me like obedient subjects. Food was no problem now because my master and his family began to give more than I could eat. It was the time of winter, so we would enjoy the sunshine in the morning and play with my master’s daughters, Sherry and Marrie.
I don’t know why but since I was small I liked Marrie more than any other member of the family. She loves me very much and keeps me neat and clean. She removes any of the seasonal bugs which appear in my fur. She bathes me regularly. Sherry loves me too but she is mostly lost in her books. I don’t know what she reads in them.
One evening, when I came back home after my evening round of market, I found my children missing. They had been taken away by four of my master’s students. I was very sad because I had milk in my body and it was overflowing. That evening I did not eat anything. I began to think how my master would feel if his daughters were taken away from him. Perhaps, he understood my emotions and he called me into his study. He hugged me tightly and kissed me. I was a bit relieved that he still cared. It took me a few days but I tried to forget them. My master has a box called ‘Mobile’ and he has their moving photos in that box. I am able to hear their sounds when he shows it to others.
My master has a shop on the first floor of our house. It is a big shop and many people come there with their colourful pieces of paper. They give those papers and carry many things with them. My brother and I have a very keen sense of recognizing good and bad people. Sometimes, we begin to bark at some women because we feel that they have hidden something in their clothes without giving those colourful pieces of papers. My master’s wife gets angry when we bark and she beats us. She keeps us tied to chains when there is a crowd of people in the shop. She does not know that we know who is carrying goods without giving pieces of papers. I wish I could make sounds like her and inform her. Why don’t they try to understand what we want to say? We quickly learn what they teach us but they never try to learn to understand us.
In the second year, I gave birth to three puppies. This time they kept one in our house. He is my son, Jackie, dark and absolutely black. He is a very intelligent boy and he follows the orders obediently. Now he is about one year old, almost my height. Bolton does not like him because my master loves Jackie very much. Obviously, Bolton is jealous of Jackie. I don’t know why Bolton is jealous of him while he has his special place on the same bed where master works on his computer, writing stories and essays.
Every year, there are a few very special days in the house. One big occasion falls near winter. For about ten days we enjoy special dishes and sweets. They decorate the house and sweet smells keep on wafting from the kitchen. One particular day, they put garlands around our necks and put red colour on our foreheads. Three of us, Bolton, my son Jackie, and I feel very special that day. They call it ‘Kukur Puja’ and the very sound enthralls us. That day people worship the creatures like us and we feel very happy.
Very next day, everything changes and we become very common.
This year I gave birth to four puppies. One of them died at the time of birth. I could not help it. Two were given away to the friends of the family. One was with us. They called him ‘Motu’ a very cute boy. He is very good looking and everyone in the family loves him. I love him more than my former children. This morning when I opened my eyes, I found that Motu was missing. Marrie’s friend had taken him away. I have been sad since morning. I am sitting with my master and I can feel that he is also sad.
When I remember my Motu, I whine but my master caresses me and gives me a few balls of dry meat and I like it very much.
Before stopping my story, I would like to say just one thing: we as dogs are very happy but humans as humans are never satisfied and happy. It is true that they have destroyed our natural habitats and we are surviving on their mercy but my sixth sense says that the end of this race is not far. Maybe, my future generations will evolve into a wonderful species and pet these humans one day! I love my master and his family but after all he is also human!
Chapter 2: Shadows of that Evening
While seeing you off, though I could not say a single word to you, I shed a few tears back in my house and my tears said everything. I had kissed your forehead and you touched my feet. You had tears in your eyes when you took my hands in your hands and said, ‘Mummy, I liked your company very much today, more than I had expected.’ I wanted to say that too but I could not.
That night I could not sleep and my tears flowed the whole night, the tears of joy.
The first phone call that I received next morning came from Mrs. Verma, though I was expecting Anchita’s phone call. She phoned me in the afternoon. Mrs. Verma was very eager to know about us. I told her everything in detail, missing nothing at all. She got emotional too and said, ‘I wish my children would do the same for me!’
‘I wish’ is always teeming with expectations, isn’t it? This very term can take us to the very end of our life. But that day ‘I wish’ was not for me, it was only for Mrs. Verma.
As I have already mentioned, I have lived that day many times and even today I am living with the memories of that particular day that had brought me the joy of my life, though the period was short, it gave me all that I had wanted. I don’t want to write about my circumstances. I don’t know whether you want to keep me with you or not but, in fact, I don’t want to live with you because I want to live in my house, on my conditions, and I want to live my life according to my rules. Above all, my husband had breathed his last in this house and I want to die here too.
You are my family and I love you all. You, Yogendra, and Sumitra are my family and I pray to God for your families. May God grant you all the happiness!
I would like to mention one thing about that evening. I would like to thank that person who brought that evening in my life and I would like to repeat it, over and again. That day I realized how a few moments are enough to fill our lives with happiness and how foolishly we waste those precious moments when we are together. I am sure that you will also remember that evening when you will be reading this letter. I want to spend an evening with Yogendra. Can you tell your brother about my wish? Before my death I want to spend an evening with my younger son. Is it possible?
I wish it was possible. There are expectations and I want them to be fulfilled. I don’t know why I am writing you all this but I think I am enjoying it. I am really happy.
With love
Your mother
His younger sister Sumitra had phoned him. She had come to meet the mother. While talking to her on phone, he was reading a newspaper. The paper had fallen down and it seemed all his memories had also been shattered with the fallen newspaper.
According to Sumitra, their mother had not woken up in the morning. She had passed away in her sleep. The letter was lying on the bed, next to mother. After the cremation of the body, he read the letter. He remembers that evening. Two months had passed. He had not been able to spare time to meet his mother again. In so many years, he had spared just one evening for his mother. Tears began to flow from his eyes. He felt deep regret and guilt. They had left their mother alone after their marriages and they never looked back.
He read the letter again and kept it in his pocket. He knew that his brother and sister would soon try to claim their share of the mother’s property but he was assured that the most precious thing of his mother was in his pocket. He knew that no one could share it.
Chapter 3: Imposed Silence
Ami has been in shower for quite some time, without any sound from her. She does not hum while taking bath, nor does she remove all her clothes. She does not want to be naked even in her bathroom. She is on the stage of her life where physic changes very fast and the attraction of watching own body can’t be resisted. But Ami has not felt anything like that. She does not seem to be much curious about all this. Once, she had thought of taking off all her clothes in front of the mirror in the bathroom but she changed her mind, for she thought that it was stupid of her to act like that. She does not know why she feels so uneasy even when she thinks about it.
Now, while taking bath, she is thinking about it. Suddenly, she realizes that she has been in the bathroom for a long while and it was quite unusual. She stepped out of the tub and wiped her body with a towel. She didn’t even close the water properly, and, putting on her clothes, came out of the bathroom. She confronted her father there. There was a mixed feeling of fear and hesitation on her face. She felt as if ground was slipping under her feet.
Very often Ami experiences the same when she is in front of her father. His authoritative face and imposing personality make her tremble and she wants to disappear from there in no time.
Her father stood there and she waited for his words. She felt that her father would scold her and ask her what was happening to her and why she took so long in the bathroom, but nothing like that happened. He did not say anything and went away from that room. Ami heaved a sigh of relief.
She took long strides on her wet toes and hurriedly entered her room. She felt strong when she found that she was in her room. She belonged to that room and everything in that room was in her possession. She was the queen in there. She felt safe in those four walls.
She stood near the window and looked down in the lawn where her father was enjoying the sun, sitting in his comfortable armchair. He had a fresh yellow rose in his hand and his fingers were separating its petals one by one.
While taking lunch or dinner with papa at the dining table, Ami can’t develop enough courage to look at her father’s long and hard fingers. She was scared of his fingers, as if they were ready to pull the trigger of a pistol. Even when he held a pen, she knew that there would be a blast and someone would be fired from his job.
Ami shut the window very softly.
She squeezed her hair and let them loose. Her hair reached up to her hips. She put she covered her hair in a towel and tied a knot on her head. She came on to the terrace and lay in the sun. Her father had told her once to get a haircut and get rid of the long hair. He said that the hair-bun does not suit her because it adds to her age. It was not a suggestion or advise, it was an order. She was unable to tell him that she loved her hair so she began to weep at the dining table. After that he did not say anything; he got up and went out.
Ami feels that the more her father wants to make her modern and forward, the more she is going backward. She wants to decrease that tension prevailing between herself and her father. She does not know when things will be normal. She wants to take the first step but when she looks at his face her resolve crumbles. His moustache reminds her of the army officers who had taken part in the Second World War and she feels that the Great War is not over.
She heard her father’s voice. He had left the lawn and entered the kitchen. He was giving instruction to Rummy about dishes. Then there was a long pause and no sound reached her. The sun had begun to hurt her now, for she had been lying there for about an hour. She came back to her room.
No sooner had she entered her room than she began to think about her works. She could not remember what she had to do so she sat in front of the dressing table and picked a comb. She combed her hair for fairly long time and there was nothing new in it, for often on her holiday she did something like this. She kept herself busy with such trivial tasks. It was difficult to pass the day and she was eagerly waiting for the night. The only evident reason behind these activities was to avoid her father.
It is holiday today and she is going through the same routine of unnecessarily keeping herself involved in works which in normal life happen to be insignificant. She felt like a prey that was standing in front of a gun waiting for it to explode and hit her. She thought that the hunted happen to be fortunate because one bang and everything is silenced, the immediately departure from this earth, but she has to die over and again.
Lost in the world of her thoughts and surmises, she often thought that there was another Ami inside her. She was desperately searching for the other Ami.
In the meantime, there were other voices erupting from the partitioned half of the bungalow. Her father and her brother, Lokesh, were arguing. She remembered that the partition was the idea of her father, though Lokesh did not want it to happen. She remembered that her brother was unhappy and he had left the house and gone to live in Bombay with his friend. He was obviously quite angry but her father was unaffected. One week after her brother’s departure, her father had given the other half of the house to certain Mrs. Narula on rent.
The thought of her brother left her sad. When she thought about her brother, her father, to her, seemed to be a dangerous insect that was always conniving and plotting to create a web.
She remembered how, one day, he had muttered in his fit of anger, “Bastard…he is like his mother! Unfaithful creature!”
She had never even imagined that her father could use such disrespectful words for her mother. Ami did not know how her mother was. Her father had already torn all her photos. Lokesh often told her that their mother loved reading and writing. In stead of buying clothes and cosmetics from the market, their mother brought books and magazines, which caused tension between their mother and father. As a result, their father had given her a separate room on the first floor. Her brother said that the mother began to spend most of her time in that room, reading those books and writing hundreds of pages filled with stories. He told her that their mother used to write very sentimental stories. When her first story was published, the father had beaten her severely, slapping and kicking her. Lokesh was too young to understand it but he had seen the anger of an I. P. S. officer for the first time. There was police brutality in his slaps and kicks. That night their mother wept for hours. Next morning, her dead body was found in the garden. She had jumped out of the window of her room. The suicide was, perhaps, the only way out of her miserable life.
Now, when her brother and father argue and quarrel, Ami gets frightened with the thought that one day her brother would jump out of window. Ami was not able to comprehend what had happened in the house but she knew that her father had beaten their mother. That night she had slept with her brother, hugging him tightly lest her father should beat her.
Since the day when her brother had left the house, she never entered his room. On third day she had received a letter sent by her brother. He was staying at a hostel with an engineer friend in Mumbai. After a few days, he sent a gift pack for Ami but her father popped it out of the window. She was unable to control her tears.
In the evening, when father returned, he brought a lot of dresses for her. After that day, he began to bring one or the other gift for Ami, obviously, to please her and to make room in her daughter’s heart. Ami never liked the presents brought by her father. Earlier he used to bring frocks, trousers, shoes, and dresses but this year he had started bringing saris for her. She had already felt that she was not a girl who wore children’s clothes. Sometimes she thought that one day her father would come back home with a young man and say, “Ami, I have brought a husband for you.”
But she was wrong. His behaviour began to be acceptable with the progression of time. He seemed to be relenting. Sometimes, he would be very happy. Ami wanted to find out the thing which had created distance between her father and her brother.
It took a long time to understand the issue. Ami’s mother was her father’s second wife and her brother, Lokesh, was the son of her father’s first wife.
The sound of her father’s footsteps distracted her. She composed herself and waited for his command.
He stood at the threshold for some time and then said, “Ami, how dirty your room is! Tell Rummy and get it cleaned!” After that he moved towards the terrace. Ami thought that the linguistic bridge between herself and her father was too narrow.
She monitored her room and didn’t find anything which made it look dirty. Then his voice was heard again, “Dinner is ready, come down!”