Live and Let Live

Eight year old Dhanya loved those stories that started with “Once upon a time”. But she didn’t like the present feeling of “once upon a time we used to spend our summer holidays in our grandparents’ house”. Till 2020, every summer Dhanya used to eagerly look forward to going to her Grandmother’s house in the village.

That huge house with a very big courtyard in the front gave her ample space to play around. She hardly feel the need to go out of the house, with her neighbour’s children too joining her to play with her within the house. It was her friend Gowri from the next house who taught her hopscotch for the very first time. And Dhanya taught her “Eenaa meena maina mo” which Gowri liked very much.

How they loved to play hide and seek in that house! They hid behind those large wooden pillars, or in those secret rooms that were meant to store the barn or behind those large utensils for use during family functions kept in the corner. However, the last one turned out to be quite risky. The noise of those tumbling vessels had brought the whole house down once, when they just collapsed as Dhanya stumbled over them while trying to hide. Luckily she had come out unscathed. That’s when her grandparents barricaded that place making it impossible for her to hide there anymore.

Her favourite pastime however was watching those cows in the shed as they grazed. Though the place strongly smelled of cow dung, she was fascinated to watch the cow Lakshmi and the calf Goda as they went about their daily business. She simply loved to pet Goda. She was very proud of herself to have given bath to Goda one fine morning. She even tried to milk the cow once earning the compliments of her Granny who mentioned it to her father saying “After me, I think it’s only Dhanya who knows how to milk a cow.” How proud she had felt when everyone clapped for her that day!

She loved their pet dog Dhani. Dhani never stepped into the main house but always hovered around in the front yard. Her Dadi said Dhani was a baby when he was almost left for dead at their door severely injured. It was her Dada who took him to the Veterinary doctor and got him treated. Soon he grew into this well-fed monster that was very hard to control. Dadi said she named him after Dhanya. Dhanya loved Dhani to bits. Dhani too took onto her right from the very first day. He loved to fetch anything that she threw. He also loved to play hide and seek with her though it was always she who hid. No matter how much she tried, she could never teach Dhani to hide. Dhanya loved to cuddle against the extravagant ruff of fur around Dhani’s neck. Straightening his long tail that curved in, only to find it curve again, amused her to no end.

Inside the house, Dadi had a cat too which she named Kanha as he always stole butter from the kitchen. Kanha too had walked in one fine day and decided to make it his house. Dhanya played with Kanha inside the house and with Dhani outside. They even had a few chicken running around the yard and there was always some commotion or the other with those birds.

Time simply seemed to fly when she was at her Dada’s village with so many different living beings happily living under or around one roof. Now it has been two successive summers since she hadn’t seen her grandparents. It has been more than one year since she went to school or played around with her friends. The whole world was talking about this Coronavirus which had driven people inside their houses and their faces behind those hideous masks.

Whenever Dhanya called her granny she asked about Lakshmi, Goda, Dhani, Kanha and those nameless chicken. She pined to meet them as much as she pined to meet her grandparents.

“Why can’t we go to our village Papa?” she asked her father 'nth' time.

“I told you Beta. Once we win the fight against Coronavirus, we would definitely go.”

“But why is it after us Papa? All those dogs are roaming freely outside. Granny tells me that Dhani too goes out as usual.”

“That’s a very good question. We really don’t know why, but only human beings seem to be affected by the Coronavirus.”

“But why, Papa? Did we harm the Coronavirus?”

“Not the Coronavirus. We harmed a lot of animals. We have been acting as though we are the masters and all the animals are there to serve us.”

“That is very bad of us Papa.”

“Yes, Dhanya. But let’s pray that we all become good someday. Okay?”

That night before going to bed Dhanya started praying as her parents always made her to do “God. Please protect my family and Lakshmi, Goda, Dhani, Kanha, our chicken” she added as an afterthought “and also Coronavirus. Please make everyone good so that Coronavirus also would be good.”

Dhanya’s mother’s eyes turned moist on hearing those words. “I wish the whole world could hear your prayer my love. It’s so simple and yet so beautiful.”

As she hummed her daughter’s favourite lullaby to ease her into sleep, she felt Dhanya’s innocence and pure love are her anchors to sanity during the relentless traumatic days they were all going through.