I walked quietly. Scared and shivering! All around me, the
world was collapsing.
All of a sudden, a bomb exploded in front of me. I screamed
and tried to find a hiding place. I felt hunted. Every step was a potential
landmine and there seemed no place to hide.
Another bomb exploded - this time, from my right. Heavy
smoke rendered the air. I coughed and tried to search for a new direction where
I could escape. No such place seemed to exist.
Some distance away to my left, I was startled by continuous
firing. That seemed like the last straw. Seemingly never ending, it lasted for
a few minutes during which I cringed in agony and fear. I tried to hide my head
under my body. That was about as useful protecting me as throwing a stone at
the bombs.
The land mines continued to explode. I slunk off in another
direction, thinking that to be quieter than the rest. How mistaken I was!
The land under me exploded. Like a cat on a hot tin roof, I
changed direction and sprinted away. But where to go??
I found an uninhabited bunker. It seemed like only a
temporary respite. I reached there, closed my eyes and lay down. I waited to
die.
Soon afterwards, a fellow being found me there. He had been
my sworn enemy. But in this age of madness and day of chaos, we put aside our
quarrels, quietly acknowledged each other and waited in the bunker. A common
empathy ran between us.
By and by, another being found us there. She didn’t belong
to our community. But what is community in the face of fear and quest for
survival. We gave her her own space. We all waited to die. We all waited for
the moment when this bunker would be torn apart by bombs or gunfire.
I heard laughter. Till yesterday, the same people who had
walked along side us had turned in to demons today.
I whimpered pitifully. Scratched my tail and lay in
agony. I was unable to withstand the explosions and the noise. Even a small bark
refused to come out of my mouth.
**************
The festival of lights and joy, they called it. Joy, eh?
Landmines, explosions and ... joy?
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