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The Wolves


Asha looked at her watch.It was past 5.30 PM, the routine time for her to go for her evening walk.She was always double- minded whether to confine it to her neighbourhood park,which was embedded between a clutch of houses surrounding it on all sides and which seemed to have gelled into its environs.The tall dusty eucalyptus trees brushed against their boundry walls and even their balconies. There generally was nobody visible there. Asha always had a curiosity to have a peek inside the houses to see the inmates.Her thirsting eyes sought out any human figure to whom she could throw a genial smile to get connected.But no body ever appeared. It was only the windy movement of the tall lean trees which created a stir in them.Any-way she would continue with her circumscribed rounds which bored her to hell and in order to get out of this rut-she would sort of go on fast runs which turned into a spin and did not leave any time for her to ruminate.The broken walk- way itself was a hindrance to her wildly flighty thoughts which played havoc with her moods.Sometimes a glimmer of sunshine would dawn over her.She would see some ladies enter the park.For Rani it used to be a vexing moment. She wished to accost them so casually as not to let them see through her desperation for company.The response on their part was a little suspicious yet she was determined to wedge into and make her space.She fell into their incoherant conversations and ,since she had no constraints of time she dragged along.They were the busy wives, mothers, grand-mothers and had many issues to resolve.Sometimes it was the recipe for the home- made pickle or it was shopping from different complexs which sold items cheaper and such sundry issues which made Asha wince . It was the triumphant glee with which they shared their experiences of buying vegetables at throw away prices.They talked with vengeance how some vendor tried to cheat them by selling to them vegetables at a little higher price than the one who sold them at a cheaper rate.They also averred that he did it out of some compulsion since they had to earn a bit at the end of the day to feed those hungry mouths who subsist on the minimum and huddle in the make shift hovels and are a part of the doomed who remain the cursed outcast at the periphery of human civilization.
Time passes .They delink giving a cursory wave to  Asha and disappear.Asha stops and breathes a deep breath and then makes a foray into her own niche which is now restful and recharged.She looks far and beyond.The children have left.The dust is settled down.The trees too seem to be in a swoon- ponderous with the mounds of dust heaped over them from morn till night till eternity.They seem to have acquired eyes which are brooding and tearful and the now slack leaves each one of them seem to assume the shape of two soulful eyes fixed on her.They remain glued when the darkness of the evening summons her to leave.She rises quietly waving at them or sometimes just reaching out close touching them softly and fretfully in order to avoid the rough sandy touch which claws at them to their soul.

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