This is an English translation of “Oru Raaththal Iraichi” written by Nakulan. Translated from the Tamil by Saravanan. K. This is 44thEnglish translation in Tamil Classic Short stories series.
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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 has ever been published so far. Nearly fifteen or so (Novel, short novel and poetry) might have been published. Of them, I didn’t receive any payment for thirteen works. The cheque I received for my 14thstory fetched me four rupees and twenty-five paise after deducting the commission amount.
I loved a woman. Her name was Susheela. Her got married and she is a mother now. I am amazed at thinking about all these even though I am not fully unaware that getting married and begetting children are quite natural in one’s life. Everyone in the bank where I am working got promoted superseding me. I was promoted only in the 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 following 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 a local breed with dull brick colour. Erect ears. Neither short nor tall. Stout bodied. I had named him Raju. Now he had become old. Notwithstanding it, he was close to me, loved me. Some days, I used to have conversation with him.
“Raju…Kaithi has been released in Mahalakshmi theatre. Can we go there? What do you think about it?”
He would be wagging 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 was crawling on my leg. Overwhelmed with fear, when I opened my eyes slowly ony to see Raju licking my legs.
I must say that I became a stupid at that moment. I must confess that Raju, who was that dearest to me, had in fact become a nuisance on every Friday.
Every Friday the attendant used to bring meat for Raju.
After cutting the meat into pieces, by the time he served it to Raju, it would be half past twelve. After giving me coffee, he would leave for bringing meat.
But Raju would arrive in my room by half past eleven.
Once 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 slowly start moving towards it. If I don’t raise any objection, the same story would repeat. I would get coffee before he got his meat. He would keep staring at me.
It would appear that he was ruing, ‘You …whole of your human race is just merciless like this. You will forget that a four legged animal is 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 within 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 became more intense. Some of my friends even enquired me whether I was suffering from any skin diseases, leaving me perplexed at what reply I must 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 just smile at them.
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.
Apart from that, I didn’t even insist him to eat 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 were bound by each other for a long time through 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. Notwithstanding this, we didn’t share any petty feeling for each other that someone is bigger and another is smaller in stature.
Such was the man of stature I was speaking to, oblivious of the fact that it was Friday. Raju was glaring 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 went out and started chasing a crow away which was sitting on the veranda.
Kanekar asked me, “Why do your dog look restless?”
I said nothing. I can’t tell him that the dog was going mad as it didn’t find appropriate time to lick my shoes. Can I?
When the clock rang twelve, Kanekar suggested, “Okay…let’s go out to have our food.”
It was at that time Raju came running to me and bit my calf muscles. Kanekar was stunned at seeing it and told, “Chain this dog first”. Once I shouted at the dog, it became quiet. The servant tethered the dog.
Before returning to his place, Kanekar accompanied me to the doctor. The doctor assured me that there was nothing to worry. Once 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 about the reason behind Raju’s restive behaviour at once he bit me).
After ten days, when my servant handed over Raju to the Municipal Corporation dog catcher, I felt bad a bit about it. Though what Raju had done didn’t appear to be a big crime to me, I didn’t stop my servant. It was because the way he licked my leg every week unfailingly was more unbearable than his bite.
***End***
Translated from the Tamil by Saravanan. K
Source: Oru Raaththal Iraichi, a short story written by Nagulan
