6.NEENU

That was the day after my father’s death. The funeral was over by afternoon and most of the friends and relatives had left. We were not in a mood for dinner and there was a lot of left – over food. I just went outside home to find this white dog lying in the courtyard, seeming tired and hungry. So I brought the food and gave him. From the next day, he was stationed in front of my home greeting the visitors. My uncle, who had come for the mourning, found the funny side of the whole thing and cited a few anecdotes from his life. He said she reminded him of a senior employee of his by the name of Neenu ( Courtesy: Arvinda Mama, now no more). He began to make jokes of the dogs, which quite helped us to overcome our grief. Neenu  came to us as  a stray and remained so. We never tried to adopt any dog. Just gave him food and he would come and rest in our courtyard when he felt like. A turning point in his life, perhaps, was when Naga and Indu came. Naga and Indu, now doctors by profession, had come to stay in our house for a brief period, at the time of their rural practice. Naga liked Neenu very much and Neenu too had a special bond with Naga. She would visit our upstairs, which was rented out to the doctors, in meal times to get a few titbits.After the doctors left, she was a stray again. We came to know later that Neenu had been brought up by another family nearby from the time she was a puppy. Once her owner had become angry at her for something and whipped her .Her pride was so that she left home that day and never went back. Probably that was the day I saw her in my courtyard. Her end was when she got hit by a truck as she was trying to cross the road.But before we could reach the spot,her former owner had took and buried her.