JIMMY

                                         JIMMY's worry   J K  SIVAN 

Jimmy is  restless.  She finds suddenly a good lot of changes.  Why no children are  chasing and throwing stones at her.

Why there is no noise on the streets and movement of any vehicle. She is  upset with someone  spraying some strong smelled gas  all over the street.  She  runs here and there.  No house is open.  Jimmy  finds a gap between floor and the gate's bottom in  Nandakumar house and usually  enters  the  house and rests under the chikkoo tree  The old houseonwer, Rayar, will not drive her out but today he  came out  wearing a mask  and chased  her out. 

Jimmy was regular and used to wait outside the Murugan  temple at the end of the street for someone to throw some food for her.  No one is there and the temple door is also shut. Her experience taught her that if some one in the houses close to the temple died, the temple would remain closed until the body is taken out and the place is  water washed.  Why now closed,  when there is no death around.

One day two day and three days .. almost over,   ..... What happened, when will normalcy be restored for himto live the life Jimmy  is used to?.  She could not find other dogs and cattle also on the street.   Jimmy ran for a while hoping  the next street will atleast be as before.  Everywhere why it is same as in the street she lives?.

 Summer is catching up and there is need water and food. Jimmy thought of the school which is one of the places  she used to haunt in the lunch hour for children to move about . Certainly she would get variety of food there.  But to her surprise the school gate was also closed with no  noise of the children.

Jimmy can recognise human sound and has lived old enough to understand what people speak.  She is  now alone with no specific place to call her own to rest.  Jimmy has two regular places where she can confidently sleep at nights or sometimes during the day for a few hours.  One was the western corner near the stagnated  gutter water in the ditch behind Ramu’s Tea shop.  She had an advantage in having chosen that place. Some of the visitors to the tea shop would sometimes throw away a few broken biscuits and rusks,   or remants and bits of  vadas and bonda from their plates, found  near the ditch.  So it was both cool  place  protecting her against the sun rays and an uninhabited spot where food was also sometimes available for her.  It was ofcourse a rude shock thart Ramu always  shouting  at others, is not there and his tea shop door is closed with no visitors and tea smell. Where to go for crumbs of bread or biscuit bits.?

But luckily she can sleep undisturbed and there is no mischievous  boys  to throw stones at her  for which she was well  prepared always  and escaped running away, the moment  she observed their bending to pick up stones.

The other place to rest for her was the gap between the Corporation school compound at the North street end where a big neem tree had spread its branch above the compound wall. The gap between the tree trunk and the wall was enough for her to enter, rest and sleep undisturbed. Tiger her friend and older than her  used to give company.

Unfortunately during the last 3 days she had faced a big problem as she could not sleep and rest  or roam about for finding  food because  Ramu had closed his Tea shop. Why he has closed now the tea shop which he used to close only during Diwali time to sell crackers and sparklers  instead of tea.

She remembered the horrible time during Diwali wheren  there was a huge rush there and some of the  buyers had used the adjoining street corner to  fire the crackers which made hell of a noise continuously.

Jimmy was very much scared,  afraid and shuddered  at this unsual silence.  This is something not Diwali and no noise? Can silence also be killing as the noise?

Diwali was  something  common though unbearable once a year but the biggest problem  is  though she has full freedom  now  to run wherever she liked with no disturbance, she is not used to this.  She used to be afraid of strangers in her street and at other places, but now there is no one known or unknown and the absence of anyone  troubled her.

Jimmy peeped into a house through an open  door  and found to her shock the TV displaying many people  wearing the mask and preventing the people from using the road  etc,  She heard the word Corona , Corona and Corona in the last three days.?  What is this?  Why people are afraid of it when I am not?  she thought and  ran way looking out for some one to throw food for her.