“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” ― Edith Sitwell
Raj pulled the cardboard box full of toys towards himself, and Diva pulled it back towards herself. The toys that were neatly bundled spilt out with their laughter. Diva was seven and was dressed in a green frock with leggings to keep herself warm this winter morning. Raj ‘s hair sported a crew cut, he was tall for his four years, both had snub noses and dark eyes, their hair was brown and skin tanned. They lived in a shanty with cemented walls having twin doors and an asbestos roof lined by bricks to prevent it from flying off. The shanty lay in the centre of a 2 km long field of agricultural land. It was a prime spot layered by the main road on one side, a multi-storied building complex on the other and the famous Engineering college on the third side. The fourth side was a long walkway till the gate which led to a construction site.
Raj and Diva played in the hot sun that basked the yard on a cold morning, the other side was cooler due to the shadow. The grass grew till the small cemented veranda which was bonded precariously with the stones and cement left on the other side of the shanty. The excess of crushed stone chips were left as a mound, a few had been spread out to place a drum of water, it also served as a place to wash the utensils. Raj and Diva had an elder sister Mani who was tall and was dressed in green leggings and a purple shirt. She first swept the house clean, she then ushered Raj and Diva to the shady side saying, ‘let me sweep the place clean’. Diva was reluctant, she said, ‘Let me play a while more, the toys are arranged in the box’, but Mani slowly pulled the box into the shade. Mani then swept the yard clean, picked the plastics and the papers from the yard, she then pulled a rag and wet it in a tiny bucket and scrubbed the floor clean. She opened the doors and left it to dry. She threw the remaining water after mopping the floor in front of the door to clear the dust. Now the veranda had mixed colours, a portion wet, a portion dry and dusty.
The vendor on the road had begun deep frying the hot potato Wada, a savoury to entice the college students. Raj and Diva loved the aroma of the oily savoury, they chugged the cart of toys like a train calling out, ‘Wada, Wada’… Mani had adorned the role of her mother today, she left the place to dry the washed clothes on a clothesline on the other side of the shanty. The washed clothes were kept in a bucket that was left after the emulsion of paint was washed. These buckets were used to carry water from the construction site. It had to be carried numerous times in a day after every routine job to fill the drum of water.
Now the house lay wide open, the field was vacant and tilled while the path lay in solitude. A black dog wandered into the field that day and came near the doorway, it found no one at the doorway. It peeped into the vacant doorway, there seemed no one, Raj and Diva were playing silently with the toys in the shade, the dog entered the doorway and ran into the house. It found the home warm and clean. It could see food kept neatly covered at the extreme end of the second doorway, but it found a warm rug near the doorway and quickly settled down. It was just then that Raj wanted to drink water, he was surprised to see the dog when he entered into the house. He yelled loudly saying, ‘Tai, Tai, a dog has entered our house’. He kept yelling loudly but the dog wasn’t perturbed, it slowly pushed itself under the cot, Mani looked around with a stick in her hand, now the dog fled towards the backyard, and lay hiding behind the empty Asian paints bucket. The girl shooed the dog loudly, they ran as a group, but the dog remained unruffled. It slowly walked to the veranda and lay on the floor with its body sprawling the sun rays. Raj, Diva and Mani quickly raced in and closed the door. The toys were left lying in the shade. They ate their lunch and slept cursing the black dog. In the evening when there was a knock on the door, they had to open the door cautiously as the front portion of the house had no windows, to their joy they found the person was their mother. The children opened the door and clung on to their mother, they told her about the dog. Their mother scolded them for being cowards, she told them to love animals. She pulled out a chapatti to give the dog, but the dog had left after a long wait.
“Home is where my habits have a habitat” ― Fiona Apple
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