Before I begin with the short story I want to inform you about a few things. I love writing travel blogs and previously also used to write food blogs. I have a collection of a few unfinished short stories and over the next few months, I will try to publish a few.
This is the story about Chini and Kalo Goja, these are the names of two dogs who live in the same neighborhood. To make things clear Chini means sugar in Bengali and Kalo Goja is a type of sweetmeat. Both Chini and Kalo Goja are Indian street dogs but they were lucky to have found a home.
Chini a brown color female dog was rescued by a young boy who had seen the weak puppy on the street while Kalo Goja was a male dog who had a black coat with white patches. He was rescued by a young girl from the churchyard.
Both the parents of the boy and the girl even though initially had objected to the presence of a dog inside the house but somehow over the years had grown affection towards them.
Every evening the girl will take Kalo Goja for a walk in the neighborhood and during the walk will surely cross the house of Chini. Every time the young girl would pass by Chini’s house, she would see the small paws of Chini under the door panel. Chini would desperately try to sniff the presence of the young girl and Kalo Goja.
The girl will always make a point to stop by and pat the paws which would always stick out and on some days when the door was open Chini would jump up on two legs trying to reach Kalo Goja.
Over the years both Chini and Kalo Goja became good friends so did their masters the boy and the girl. After having his evening food Kalo Goja would become desperately want to go out for his daily walk so that he could meet Chini.
The boy would wait for the girl to come with her dog and every evening would keep waiting at the nearby shed under the tree with some snacks. While the dogs played with each other the boy and girl will talk about how they had spent their day. The boy would get all the food that she liked especially momo’s and ice cream. When they would be eating their snacks, the dog would stop playing and look at their master for some share which the boy would always oblige.
The boy and the girl would go shopping together to get dog food for their dogs from the nearby shops. The day Kalo Goja would be visiting the vet for his regular checkups and vaccinations the boy would also come along. He would hold Kalo Goja tightly while the doctors would examine him. Surprisingly even the assistants at the pet clinic would not be able to calm him but the boy would easily put his arms around Kalo Goja and keep him calm while he was being treated.
One evening along with snacks the boy got a bunch of wildflowers from his house garden and when he gave them to the girl she accepted them with a huge smile telling him that this was the first time that someone would give her flowers.
The old house where the boy lived with Chini was being broken down by the landlord so the boy’s family decided to move to another neighborhood but this did not stop the boy and the girl to meet every evening. The boy would often bring some pink roses along with snacks for the girl. He ensured that she always got the best things that she liked. For him, her smile and the joy of seeing Kalo Goja wagging his tail were the best that could happen to him.
One day the house located next to that of Kalo Goja had a visitor and along with the visitor came a big beautiful female Labrador name Jhunu. Now Kola Goja had a new friend that too located the house next door. The visitor to that house would be spending a few months in the city so had decided to stay in that relative’s house during the trip.
Every day late afternoon Junu would come up to the terrace for her walk and Kalo Goja would rush to the terrace to see her. She had a beautiful shiny coat and Kalo Goja slowly made it a habit to come to the terrace whenever she came up.
Slowly the girl got busy with her work and stopped taking Kalo Goja for his evening walks. Unknown to her Chini along with her owner would keep waiting under the shade along with momos and ice cream every single day.
After a few months of waiting the boy finally went and waited outside that girl’s house along with Chini hoping to catch a glimpse of them. This day was very special as this was the first time, he was going to meet her near her house the boy had packed some special snacks. The flavor of ice cream which the girl loved the most which were Belgian chocolate dipped in hot chocolate sauce. To make the day special the boy got a dozen pink roses which was her favorite.
After waiting hours suddenly, the boy saw the girl come out along with Kalo Goja and instead of taking the street that leads towards his house he saw her knocking on the next-door neighbor, the house where Jhunu the dog was staying. The neighbor handed Jhunu to the girl and she along with Kalo Goja started walking in the opposite direction.
The boy ran towards her along with Chini waving his hand to alert her of their presence. On seeing him running towards him the girl looked stunned. The boy with eyes sparkling wide handed her the bunch of roses and the ice cream. The girl whispered back that he was embarrassing her with the flowers in her neighborhood and that she has stopped eating ice cream. She informed her that she can’t come to walk along with her dog any longer and he should start walking Chini on his own.
The boy looked stunned as he had never expected her to react like this. All this while Kalo Goja on seeing Chini was ecstatic and started wagging his tail and trying to touch her with his paws.
The girl dragged Kalo Goja away and started walking back inside her house, Chini was trying her best to break away from her leash and run towards Kalo Goija. The girl went back to her home and closed the door.
The boy stood there along with Chini and in his hands was melting ice cream and a bunch of roses. The boy slowly walked towards the waste bin and threw away molten ice cream and the bunch of pink roses. Chini still could smell the presence of Kalo Goja nearby and started barking.
The boy knelt towards Chini and patted her back, with a stream of tears in his eyes he whispered into Chni’s ears “You are a good dog and dogs don’t bark”.