Two Lives

I was tired

What with the hot summer sun beating down mercilessly; my old body refused to move further.

I had been walking, for God know how long; this must be the third day. Maybe will have to walk another day or two to reach my new abode.

I have forgotten what day and cared less about the date.

I saw the lone tree on the highway. It had somehow survived, despite all other trees being removed as part of the widening of the road. 

I sat down on a large stone, removed the water can from my bag and was about to drink when I saw her.

She too looked very tired and was walking aimlessly.

She saw me with her large eyes and came and stood a few feet away from me under the shade.

The scorching sun spared no one; she too appeared to be very thirsty.

I looked around to find anything I could use to provide her with some water.

There was nothing except the newly laid tar road burning like fire.

I hesitated; how can I make her drink from the bottle?

I slowly walked towards her and stood near her.

She lifted her head; I slowly poured water into her open mouth and she drank gulping every drop.

The large bottle was empty in a minute.

I went back and sat down on the stone, removed another bottle and drank slowly watching her.

She looked at me; this time there was gratitude in her large eyes for providing water which she must have been desperately looking for in that barren man-made desert.

She came close to me and stood looking towards me. 

I wondered whether she needed some food as well. I had nothing that I could offer.

She was completely brown-bodied except for a large streak of white running from her neck to her leg.

I looked and suddenly laughed out loud at the irony.

Here I am, away from everyone whom I might call family; literally deserted and sent out of the house unceremoniously. I had exhausted my usefulness to them.

Just like her; in her heyday, she must have given gallons of milk and helped rear entire family from the income of selling the milk; but today, the poor cow, just like me has been discarded by the same people as she no longer was useful to them – meaning, she will not earn but has to be fed.

The cow lifted her head and looked at me with surprise.

I had company after all these days wherein I walked alone, talking loudly to myself, sometimes.

I caressed her neck and spoke. “I know what you are thinking. I must be mad to laugh like that, is it not? Do you know something? I have reached that stage in my life, where I don’t care what others think. You see, after all these years of living for someone else, finally, I realised, that I should live for myself.

It’s almost three days since I started walking towards my native place where I have a small house, away from the very house I built so lovingly. Believe me, it was very difficult for me to even breathe in that house leave alone sleep. It took more than 2 years and almost all the savings that I had for constructing that beautiful small house with a large open space and lots of flower-bearing trees.

Today, the concretised place has an artificial lawn! All the trees were removed without any remorse, forgetting that they spent the better part of their childhood playing under those trees.

Those plants and trees were planted by their mother, my wife of 40 years.

Today, it is fashionable to discard everything old; especially those belonging to the old parents who must have spent a lifetime buying and building.”

I looked at her face; the large black eyes were moist!

Can cows understand human language? 

I was sure she understood every word I spoke and most importantly, could easily relate to her own story; better than most humans who don’t even try to understand when others are speaking.

How I wish, she too could speak!! I am sure, she too has a horrible tale of betrayal to tell.

She came even closer to me as if to console me!

I hugged her and continued.

“Honestly, I have not spoken to anyone about how I was almost destroyed by my own people. Today, looking at you, I feel comfortable talking. You see, you are not judgmental like many I interacted with all my life.

We humans, generally are judgmental, poor listeners and most importantly lack that empathy while listening.

In you, I find all those things that we lack.

Anyway, I am not utterly bothered that my two sons and lone daughter chose money over the relationship. They tricked me to sign all property documents and guess what, literally pushed me out of the very house that I so lovingly built.

I read in the newspaper that the highest court of our country has passed judgment wherein, the parent’s rights will be restored if the children take their properties unlawfully.

But you know what, I don’t want those properties back. In fact, I want to go as far away as possible from those evil-thinking children.

In a way, I am happy that this happened to me and not to my loving wife, who passed away two years ago. I shudder with fear just thinking what could have happened if I had died first. In hindsight, I believe that as an old man, I am less useful to them. Being a woman, my wife would have sloughed in the kitchen and thus, would have been spared at least until she could cook no more.

Parents are like cows I suppose. I know what they have to done; putting you in a truck and leaving far away from their place so that you don’t go back, right? 

How selfish we humans are! Leave alone gratitude, we don’t even have basic human courtesy towards those who helped.

I remember vividly how I ran in the pouring rain to bring medicine to my ailing son; the doctor refused to come as it was pouring and I begged him to at least give me some medicine.

And my daughter? Oh, the days we spent when she was born in the 8th month and the temples we visited for her well-being.

My wife hardly ate or drank for almost 2 months until she recovered.

The struggle to finance their schooling, marriage oh, I honestly don’t know what I would have done without my wife standing like a pillar behind me.

Everything changed once she left me alone in this world.

But for my father’s old house in the village, I lost everything. They even tricked me and took all my savings leaving me penniless.”

I stopped my talk.

The cow came and put her neck on me as if to hug me.

I hugged her and wept for a while.

I stood up and took my bag and looked at her.

She understood that I was about to leave.

She slowly walked towards me and pulled my bag from her teeth, as if asking me to stay.

I looked around the barren road; the nearest village is almost 30 kilometres away and my place, is almost 45.

The old house I inherited from my father – my children hated it as it was in bad condition and away from the city – has a huge courtyard covered with old asbestos sheets providing shelter to her. 

I looked at her and decided to take her away with me.

We will survive, as long as we can; we both are sailing in the same boat - we are discarded and thrown out but, we still have some spirit left to fight for our lives.

You see, we have only each other for company.