This is an English translation of “Oru Raaththal Iraichi” written by Nakulan. Translated from the Tamil by Saravanan Karmegam.
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My name is Naveenan. I have been writing for the past twenty five years. It mightn’t be fully correct if I say none of my writings had got published so far. I might have published some fifteen works that included novel, short novel and poetry. Of them, I didn’t get paid for thirteen works. The cheque I received for my 14thstory fetched me four rupees and twenty-five paise after deducting the commission amount.
I was in love with a woman. Her name is Susheela. She got married off and she is a mother now. Though I am fully aware that getting married and begetting children are quite natural in one’s life, I always get amazed at very thought of it. Everyone in the bank where I am working got promoted superseding me. I was promoted only last year. The inflation was also equally higher at that time. My siblings are living in another town. My parents died three years ago one after another.
I wasn’t shaken by any of these, nor engulfed by any bitter feeling either. I was rearing up a dog for the last five years. It was of a local breed in dull brick colour. Erect ears. Neither short nor tall. Stout bodied. I had named him Raju. Now he had become old. Notwithstanding it, he had been close to me, loved me and I used to have conversation with him.
“Raju…Kaithi has been released in Mahalakshmi theatre. Can we go there? What do you think of it?”
He would wag his tail, lying down.
“Raju…which one you like most? Novel or short novel?”
He would kept looking at me, lying down.
Whenever I was down with fever, he wouldn’t move an inch away from me. In one such occasion when I was asleep down with fever, I felt something crawling on my leg. Overwhelmed with fear I opened my eyes slowly and saw Raju licking my legs.
I must say that I became stupid at that moment. I must confess that Raju, who had been dearest to me, did in fact become a nuisance on every Friday. Friday? Yes…the attendant would bring meat for Raju every Friday.
After giving me coffee, he would leave for bringing meat. By the time he served it to Raju slicing the meat into pieces, it would be half past twelve.
But Raju would arrive in my room by half past eleven.
As soon as he saw me, he would run to the kitchen where the servant was working and then return to me and again to him. I would shout at him.
He would remain quiet for a while. If he was convinced that my countenance was friendly after a brief browsing of my face, he would glance at the kitchen and start moving slowly towards it. If I don’t raise any objection, the same story would repeat. I would get coffee before he got served meat.
He would keep staring at me. It would look as if he was ruing, ‘You …whole of your human race is just merciless like this. You won’t mind a four legged animal standing hungry in front of you. But you all have only two legs. But you have the audacity of thinking of yourself most important’. I wouldn’t pay attention to him.
When the servant comes to me to ask for cash for buying meat, you must see Raju. All of a sudden he would run amok in the room. He would come in between my legs brushing his body against my legs and start licking them.
Despite my frequent admonishments and beatings, I couldn’t change this habit.
It seemed as if he was trying to tell me: “Why are you thrashing me? You think that I am doing this just because you would give me some pieces of meat. Do you? I am just a dog. Licking a man’s leg, and that too, licking the leg of a man like you who showers love will be exquisitely tasty. You must understand it’.
I failed in my attempts to change his habit. It had become my habit that I started wearing canvass shoes during Fridays while at home. Raju seemed to be least bothered about it and rather his enthusiasm to lick the shoes grew more intense. Some of my friends even enquired me if I was suffering from any skin diseases, leaving me perplexed as to what reply must I give them. I can’t tell them that Raju was licking my legs just to get meat on Fridays at 12 noon. Can I? I would settle with a gentle smile.
That day, it was Friday…
A famous writer, Mr N. S. Kanekar from Bombay (Present Mumbai) had written a letter that he would come to meet me. He didn’t even ask me to come to the railway station. I also didn’t go to the railway station. He came to my residence on his own.
I didn’t book any hotel room for him.
I didn’t take a photo with him either.
I didn’t even insist him to have food at my home that day as I understood that he had eaten in his friend’s home a day ago. In spite of that, he came to meet me. We have been very close to each other for a long time due to our common interest in literature. Every time he met me, he used to tell me that my writings were better than his.
I knew very well that he was telling that just to boost up my morale. We never had any petty feeling to think of us bigger or smaller in stature.
It was the man of that stature I was speaking to, completely unmindful of the fact that it was Friday. Raju was staring at him for a while. Then he went near to the kitchen and came again to me. Went to the veranda and came again to me.
It seemed to be asking me: ‘Why are you wasting your time with him? Will I get some meat?’
Suddenly he ran out and started chasing a crow away which was sitting on the veranda.
Kanekar asked me, “Your dog looks restless. Doesn’t it?”
I said nothing. I couldn’t tell him that the dog was going mad as it didn’t find appropriate time to lick my shoes. When the clock ticked twelve, Kanekar suggested, “Okay…let’s go out to have our food.”
That time Raju came running to me and bit my calf muscle. Kanekar was stunned at seeing it and yelled, “Chain this dog first”. Once I shouted at the dog, it became quiet. The servant tethered the dog.
Kanekar accompanied me when I went to the doctor before his departure for his home. The doctor assured that there was nothing to worry. Sooner Kanekar boarded the train I remembered his words he spoke with a smile: ‘Can a dog ever be addicted to a pound of meat like that?’ (Actually, I had earlier told Kanekar of the reason behind Raju’s restive behaviour immediately after I was bitten).
My servant handed over Raju to the Municipal Corporation dog catcher ten days after the incident. I did feel bad a little. Though what Raju had done didn’t appear a big crime, I didn’t stop my servant because his unfailing licks on my legs every week was more unbearable than his bite.
***End***
Translated from the Tamil by Saravanan Karmegam
Source: Oru Raaththal Iraichi, a short story written by Nagulan
