Neighbors

Mr. Natwarlal hesitated a moment and looked left and right before banging his neighbor’s main door. Mr. Natwarlal was the acting police inspector of the town and was well known for his bad temper. People curse their fate if they happen to deal with the bullheaded inspector, needless to say the agony of those who work with him.

Wondering who it could be that was banging his door, Janakraj rushed to see. On finding his most unpleasant neighbor, he stepped back in dilemma. In dismay, he worried whether any of his sons threw a cricket ball into the next compound by mistake. His past encounters with Mr. Natwarlal often ended with distasteful memories.

“You see, Janakraj, I often observed your dog lingering around our compound. Needless to say it is for our Julie” the heavy man took a pause for a breath while clenching his fists tightly.
Janakraj felt happy that the issue was different and at the same time worried about the new trouble. He felt the need to pacify his neighbor whatever might be the case.

“First of all, please come on in. Let us discuss the issue” he invited the police inspector.

Natwarlal did not expect this courtesy from his neighbor, as very few often extended such kind of respect towards him. Not knowing how to face such a situation, he stepped in and sat on the sofa.

As the inspector was appearing to be in soft mood, Janakraj immediately took the chance and offered him soft drinks and lured him into general topics. Natwarlal inadvertently showed his poor general awareness by talking foolishly. Janakraj was enjoying his neighbor’s stupid utterances. Already he was visualizing how much fun this conversation would bring among the fellow colony people. Not knowing the pranks, other do on his back, Natwarlal babbled enough till he was exhausted.

While lost in the conversation, he completely forgot about the dog issue. When he suddenly remembered it, only plain words came out of his loud mouth, as his anger had already subsided enough.“Please do not allow your dog to come around my compound henceforth. I can not approve of that” he mentioned in the utmost simple manner and left.

But nobody had noticed a golden ring that had dropped from the inspector’s hand on to the carpet in the hall, except Caesar, Janakraj’s dog. Natwarlal had the habit of squishing his ring thorough the finger while talking but this time he never noticed it slip through his finger and drop down before he left the place.

Natwarlal did not notice his missing ring till that afternoon. Once he realized what he lost, he could not stay in peace. He rushed home and shouted at everybody to go in search of it. When nobody could find it, he danced around the house in frenzy anger. At the moment, he remembered his visit to his neighbor’s house that morning.

At once he rushed to Janakraj’s house. He complained about his lost ring to his neighbor and urged him to find it without fail. “That is my wedding ring. I can not afford to lose it” he added. Even though he told about his lost property in his normal style, it appeared as if he was shouting at his highest pitch. All the other neighbors heard the fussy nuisance and wondered what really happened, but nobody had the guts to get involved.

Janakraj got increasingly upset with this latest incident. When he enquired about this with his children, his last son told him that he had seen Caesar playing with something, which resembled a ring that morning, but as he was hurrying to school, he had completely forgotten about it. Upon hearing that, Janakraj kissed his son and immediately rushed to Caesar’s kennel. But sadly, although he ransacked the whole place, he never found the ring. He shouted at Caesar initially and then later he tried all the possible ways to communicate with the dog, but all was in vain. It never yielded a clue about the ring.

Now, the problem appeared to be getting bigger and bigger for Janakraj. Had he not known about Caesar playing with a ring, he would have been peaceful. He was worried too much now and was looking for excuses to escape from the situation. He prayed God and urged all his servants to search for the ring again and again.

Meanwhile, at Natwarlal’s house, one of his servant maids found the ring under the sofa, when she was sweeping that evening. She brought that to the notice of Natwarlal, he jumped in happiness and was delighted to get back his precious possession. While he was celebrating his joy, deep down in his heart, he felt sorry for shouting at his neighbor unnecessarily. He repented for his actions and thought he should apologize for his behavior. So, he went to his neighbor’s house immediately and rang the doorbell.

Not knowing that the missing ring was already found, Janakraj anticipated a big fight and fuss from his neighbor. Noticing his neighbor at his doorstep, he decided not to face him. He urged his wife to open the door and fled into the street from the back door. When Natwarlal learned that Janakraj was not home, he thought for a second and decided to come again later.

After hiding in his friend’s house till midnight, Janakraj sneaked into his home around midnight. Even though he escaped from his neighbor that day, he was worried about the future. His thoughts were full of crazy ideas filled with fear and anxiety.

Lying in his bed, Natwarlal was also suffering, but for a different syndrome. He felt guilty about the whole affair. He rolled from that end of the bed to this end and wished he could extend his apologies to Janakraj. As the idea grew stronger and stronger in his mind, he at once jumped out of bed and rushed out, not even considering the time.

When he entered Janakraj’s compound, he hesitated to ring the bell. When Caesar saw him coming, it came down to Natwaral and started waging his tail. He cursed the dog and shouted at it to go away. He moved towards the main entrance and not finding any sign of lights inside, he debated in his mind whether to tap the door or not.

Exactly at the same time, Janakraj got out of bed and decided to get rid of his haunting thoughts. He put on the light in his bedroom. Noticing a light in one of the rooms, Natwarlal moved towards the bedroom through the garden crushing the plants under his feet. When he looked through the window, he found Janakraj standing in front of a bookshelf trying to figure out which book to choose.

In the process of attracting Janakraj’s attention, he whispered slowly “hushsh..sh.” As Jankraj was in a whole different state of mind, he never expected such kind of sounds in the middle of the night. He turned at once and in the dark, all he saw was a face with eyes glowing like small lights. He mistook the image to some ghost and almost lost a heartbeat. He started shouting loudly “Ghost..Ghost…..” and ran out of the room.

Not expecting such kind of a reaction, Natwarlal did not really know what to do. He tried to rush to the main door. With the shouting of Janakraj, all the workers in the outhouse and his children from the upstairs woke up and everybody rushed out immediately. Jankraj’s wife hurriedly put on all the lights, including the flashlights in the garden. Caesar, which was just lying down till then, got up and was barking in excitement. Janakraj’s wife opened the door along with all other family members, only to find their neighbor standing in front of their main gate surrounded by their workers.

Things settled down, after Natwarlal explained his neighbor the whole story. He extended his sincere apologies, and begged for excuses. After learning that the missing ring was found, Janakraj was relieved from his tensions. He shouted in merry and hugged his neighbor. All others also sighed a relief, for the story ending peacefully. Natwarlal wished everybody good night and started back to his home with content in his heart.

Janakraj also was so much in peace that he thought he would be having a good night’s sleep. At that very moment a new doubt arose in his stupid mind “How did the ring reach his neighbor back?” With little reasoning, he understood that it must have been Caesar and he thanked the dog for the job.

There, in his neighbor’s home, in a corner of the garden, in her kennel, Julie was lying and gazing at the crescent moon in the sky, wondering what it was really meant when her boyfriend Caesar presented a ring to her.