Bedside Story - 1

We are living in such a time where you will find it hard to get a real friend and if you by any chance get it right, you would spend your lifetime judging him. We are not sure about choosing our friends, choosing our loves or choosing our lives. We are always in a dilemma. Life never has been so hard on us.

Mr Amal Mukherjee lived in a two storeyed house near Mallikbazar. He was a retired person so he spent most of his time gardening and gossiping with his wife Madhabi. People who used to pass by his roadside balcony in afternoon often saw them chatting with cups of tea in their hands. They had no children so the only way to spend time was with themselves. Amal Mukherjee used to work in the government food department so he had a steady pension coming at the end of the month. Peace reigned in the house. Neighbours, who never saw him quarrelling with others or grudging against something, thought that Mukherjee was a happy person until that day. That day, on which Madhabi brought a little kitten from her sister’s home.

Mukherjee was an extremist in his department on his days. When he was thirty, one day he paid a visit to the famous restaurant The Dog’s nation. The restaurant was a cult for its mouth-watering hot dog. When the time came to renew its license the food department sent an observer to visit and check its food quality. Amal Mukherjee entered through the hot-dog-like door into the restaurant and the first thing he saw was a Labrador sitting in the restaurant-owner’s lap in the counter. Probably the owner tried to make a more realistic look of the Hot Dog restaurant by keeping a real dog in its counter but Mukherjee was not convinced. He was sceptical about the food quality of the restaurant which had a furry animal in its counter. So he cancelled its license. In his era restaurants maintained the strong silver lining in its gates,” No Pets Allowed Here”. Stray dogs, which used to gather around the gate behind any restaurant kitchen hoping to get some residues, were beaten to hell to impress the food inspectors. So when Madhabi brought a kitten home, it was easy to understand that Mukherjee would not be happy with it. Although Madhabi loved it very much. She had no children so the kitten found place in her empty lap. She walked with the kitten in her hand, slept with the kitten beside her, ate with the kitten beside her plate and even visited neighbour’s house carrying the kitten.

Mukherjee didn’t like anyone coming in between their conjugal life and added to that he was allergic to furry animals. So he parted his bed, changed the timing of his dinner and even no one saw them chatting in the balcony with cups of tea in their hands after that. Neighbours gossiped about how Mukherjee once kicked the kitten when it came to him while gardening, how he threw it away from his table when it jumped upon his dinner. Sometimes some heated arguments were heard from outside. Neighbouring husbands said to their wives that this was bound to happen. Every single family is liable to quarrel. There is nothing called peace in a family. Neighbouring grandparents said to their grandchildren that this was bound to happen. Peace is ruined in family when a child enters in between the pair. Children are a synonym to problems.

One day the quarrel seemed to be unstoppable. Everyone in the neighbourhood was eager to know what happened in the once-called-peaceful house. But no one wanted to interfere in one’s family matter so they suppressed their questions in stomach but kept a closed watch to the house. At night some neighbours saw Mukherjee kicked the kitten out of the gate. The kitten cried all night as it was not its normal routine to spend the night outside bedroom. In the morning someone found the kitten lying dead on the road. Probably a heavy car ran over it at night. Madhabi was inconsolable after seeing the dead body. She wept all day long. After this incident it was a common scene to the neighbours where Madhabi sitting in front of the gate with vacant look on the sky. One day she also died. Amal Mukherjee went all alone in the house. There was no one to chat, no one to share bed or dinner table. He was not so popular in the neighbourhood so not many men were eager to drink a cup of tea with him. So once again peace reigned in the house.

Suddenly one day a neighbour while passing by Mukherjee’s roadside balcony heard Amal chatting with love with a cup of tea in his hand. He was so surprised that he ran to the other neighbours and explained what he heard. They were also surprised and thought probably Mukherjee had lost his head or he found a new wife. They ran towards the balcony and what they found?

The floor of the balcony was flooded with kittens in various size and various colours. Mukherjee was seated among them with a cup of tea in his hand and a big smile on his face.