KOMAL

 The steely roads were reflecting  the merciless heat. She was  walking  quietly alongside her friend  Komal. She  was less attentive to what  her friend usually talked.  She  only mulled over the pathetic condition of the stray dogs lying  there  in the middle of the road.  She wondered as she always found them lying in the middle of the road, the heat of which could roast their soft   impoverished bodies.  Then  she  remembered that  once when she was in a severe health condition ,and the summer  heat was unbearable , she  too would  feel comfort in the hot shower , the water  of which  having turned hot in the over head tanks. The insane weakness of her  body embraced the warmth of the warm shower. She finally decided to carry water for them on daily basis  and some food too.

The wide glassy roads surrounding the stately buildings of the premier hospital  left no scope for  these poor dogs to forage for some left overs thrown by the persons accompanying the  patients , as the well healed  guards  rushed  forth with menacing looks to stop them from  doing so. But to her surprise she found some earthen pots kept there along side the wall. She had to make a little turn to reach the pots  which irked her friend Komal, and which raised a hint of  arrogance in her.  She suddenly  realised that her act was not a  simple spontaneous act of giving and getting over it  but an unconscious sense of being different  and perhaps exalted.

She looked at her friend Komal. Her self absorbed pace and indifference to these creatures  no more took away any sheen from her.