'Wild-life Near VT'

And then the dog lifted its hind leg, looked directly in the eyes of the new mongrel in the neighborhood, and began wetting the wall, his cool eyes stating, ‘Read the writing on the wall. This is Blakie’s hood.’

Nearby, in an alley in Blakie’s kingdom, the sewer rat nibbled on some spilt rubbish, skittered along the pavement and into the grill it went. The garbage collector cursed it overhead for causing the garbage to scatter, ‘Curse you, you little rascal. The gutter’s just the place for you, you filthy rat.’ The rat smiled like a Shaolin monk who has mastered ten most coveted martial art styles and muttered, ‘And the world’s just the place for you, my friend.’

In close proximity three legged dog limped to the place where all the howling was coming from. He saw a brawl building up. What initially seemed to be personal matter between two fleabags had now engulfed the whole hood, even Blakie was present now. The three legged dog had not had enough sleep. He barked to them irritably, ‘Get a life you mongrels. I have had a tiring day.’ Two dogs leapt towards him to teach him a lesson. They had sniffed out his nervousness. Blakie intervened, ‘leave the freak alone.’ he barked. The aggressors behaved as if nothing had happened, and left.

In the evening, the urchin begged half-heartedly the whole day for which the God of Professions punished him, by only providing him with which he could barely sustain and could afford no luxuries. After having his fill at the eating joint meant for urchin, which serves only fish as if by principle, he retired. He retired to the melody of the Made in China FM pocket radio which is a rage in his fellowship.

Early morning, the drug addict rose from his death, coughed his lungs out, vomited some blood, talked to his relatives who looked alive and well off. They talked not of disease or death but of mundane matters as if nothing is wrong with this early morning painting. By the time they were half through with the conversation, the addict’s wife crouched beside her husband with something sniffable, cheap and effective and the addict took it all in from his sniffer. He slowly fell to his death again. His relative departed knowing which sewer hole to find him by the next day.

A man came to Ship half baked in the ways of the world. He thought he could not stand the smell of fish around the area. Now he has been living here for 15 days and he says, ‘What smell?’