I step outside my home, to
survey the eerie environs of the main road, which is usually astir with
activity even at this time of the night.
I spot a pack of stray dogs
squabbling over a piece of food. When they sight me, plodding by the side, they
cease their contretempts and cock an eyeful towards me. I detect an unusual
glint in their eyes. My heart skips a beat. It isn’t something that I haven’t
experienced before. I have had far more animated encounters with the canine
species since the days of my boyhood, when I used to out-cycle, with impeccable
ease, chasing dogs, at Five in the morning en-route to Rosario’s Academy for
the morning Chemistry tuitions in preparation for my High School Board
Examinations. The dogs however caught me off-hand several time when I was on
foot, particularly near De Monte’s colony beneath the flickering street lights.
In such cases, I was spared but not before pleading to the mercy of the dogs. It
was just barking and growling while I used to walk back home, but not before
ending up chilled to the bone. However on this occasion, there is no barking or
growling. Just silence, as the dogs unanimously look at me with snarling teeth.
This time the experience is far more terrifying.
I move along the road, and see
cats of all hues crossing the street, with a touch of authoritativeness which
was unseen in the past. An age old adage goes – “While the cat’s away the mice
will play”, and it does seem the cats now enact the part of the mice, while the
human cats lie locked down at home. I generally take a more kindlier view of
the feline race. I stop by near a pert and plumpy cat, taking a breather in the
middle of the street, as if it owned it. Cats usually shy away from humans and
mind about their business. I respect them for taking this stand of bonhomie.
But on this occasion, I discern a thinly concealed air of hauteur in it’s
demeanour. The stolid cat in question refuses to move, comfortably ensconced. I
am fairly bothered by this display of irreverential insouciance. Maybe my
disconcertment is unconfounded. It might just be the curious case of the cat
that is scanning the street gutters for rodents from its seat of poise. But I continue
to be flustered as I trudge along.
Talk of rodents is enough to
render a man with finer sensibilities such as me off colour in itself. The
sight of one can get me even queasier. However the sight of two of the largest
bandicoots I have seen in my life, sauntering by my side on the bylane, is
calculated enough to bleach my hair. Absolute whackers! Again the distress
caused here emanates more from their overall comportment, rather from their
presence or size. I am very well aware rodents being largely relegated in their
status to the dregs of fauna, don’t roam on the loose despite being
unrestrained. True they wallow all their lives in putridity, act as carriers
for pandemics, but for sure don’t possess the gall to roam about at large
without caring two hoots about the world. Even when they have to come out of
sewers from time to time, they quickly slither back into burrows and try to
avoid contact with humanity. The fact that despite spotting an approaching
human, they choose to traipse on the sidelines with panache is cause enough for
distress.
As I moodily walk back home, I strangely begin
to realize that the trysts that are lined up will begin to alter my notions in
significant proportions. I can hear at once a gallimaufry of sounds – The baritone
of a braying donkey couple of avenues away intertwined with the unfettered
bovine mooing in motion, offset by the contralto of hungry frogs as friendly
woofs from invigorated dogs enjoin in accompaniment.
As I take a short detour to a
relatively bosky and tree-serrated cul-de-sac on the left, an avian melody
awaits me. An assortment of bird sounds rend the nocturnal air. The mellifluous
squealing of mynahs marries the soprano of cuckoos. The euphonious twitter of
sparrows countervails the squawking of parrots, as the hooting of owls binds
with the cawing of crows. The bird world sings in all its glory, as the nests
of the trees, metamorphosize into stages of musical delight. There is no
obfuscation by human induced cacophony.
I look up. The sky is
noctilucent as the refulgence of the moon spills onto the street and
illuminates it. The pellucidity of the un-polluted air paves way for sighting
entangled constellations which concurrently opalesce in the stelliferous
firmament.
As I head back into home, I
realize I don’t want to go inside. I prefer to stay outside and immerse myself
in the immaculate heraldry of flowering bestiality and the splendour of nature
and lie inextricated sempiternally. My whole view of dogs, cats and even rats
tergiversates as I realize this is but a microcosm of the way the world
functioned prior to the invasion of Homo sapiens.
This will not last long. Once
the battle with the virus is ineluctably won, a pyrrhic victory no doubt, we
will be back to usurp power, wresting it from its rightful owners, weaving
daily sins of commission, leaving the world crippled again under acts of esurience
and despoliation. The short lived reign of the 'Kingdom Animalia' will end, and
the sky shall not be as pristine as it is now.
But till then we should make
the most of the remaining days of this black swan event which has pulverized
the world, and bask in the one irrefutable good that it has brought with it –
Solitude and Peace.
