A Strange Bond

       She saw him daily. A fair, balding man of medium-build, his tall frame stooping over a walking stick; sitting on the bench beside the temple, which she visited daily. He always looked sad and forlorn. Something in his demeanor made Karuna want to reach out to him, comfort him about whatever it was, that engulfed him perennially in such grief.

      
      She was a twenty year old lively girl with compassion for all living creatures, whether man or beast. Probably, this accounted for her numerous pets; dogs, cats, rabbits and a talking parrot. Her house teemed with them. Her parents and brother had long ago, got used to having new additions to her ever-growing collection of pets. Her patience in feeding and tending to them and her unbelievable love and compassion for them, made them tolerant of the ‘nuisance’.

      
     Fortunately, they lived in a cottage which had enough space in the front and at the rear of the house. The pets however, refused to be bound to their designated spaces and enjoyed roaming freely in the house. Thus her brother would holler when he found a mongrel in the bathroom, when he went to bathe; and her mother would shriek when one of the cats pounced on the dining table goodies. Her parrot would gleefully chatter away as Karuna’s father tried to make sense of the office work, which he constantly brought back with him. Only Karuna could soothe all their ruffled feathers by coaxing her pets into order and silence.

      

The copyright of this story is with Mrs.Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.