After dark and patient Dogs

      It is dark, the street light shedding just enough light to show me the bright bulb at the fast food center half a kilometer away. For a first timer, it may appear to be the end of the road, but the road curves ever so slightly to the right. 

   As you walk forward, you can see an auto rickshaw stand. Autos of various types parked there meekly, probably brooding about their long day on the road. A few homeless people sleep on the pavement under stitched up sacks, so quiet and static that tomorrow is no bother to them. The mosquitoes are having a time of their life sucking the blood of the homeless people; they don’t seem to bother either.

  As you walk further, you reach the fast food center with makeshift chairs placed around the small blue painted shop. Some old Hindi song is blaring from a mobile on the table. At this time, the chef is waiting for his last customers to finish the Seizwan fried rice and Chinese noodles served on paper plates. The chef, a young man probably from a north eastern state is restless; he wants to hit the sack. He looks at me with an accusing eye, shaking his head as if to say nothing is left on the stove, don’t come to my shop. His boss would come now. The vessels need to be cleared, the chairs have to be folded, and the accounts have to be settled. The day is not yet over for him. He must be feeling jealous about all those people walking home. 

   Dogs sit around the shop patiently, waiting for the left overs at the end of the day. They remain motionless, as if they are dead for the time being. Why are they so patient? Is it because they know what is inevitable? The leftovers has to be cleared, there is no other way, there is no competition, the food will be served cold. The way they like best.They just need to wait patiently. 

   Isn’t it true even for us? The weak are not patient. It is a virtue of the strong. You are patient if you are confident; you are perturbed and irritable if you are not confident. Even the corollary is true; a perturbed man is often impatient. Most of our confidence comes from the vision we have, the farther we are able to see at that moment, the better we feel about handling the present. 

  The street dogs remain patient. They see themselves devouring the end of the day meal, the reward for their patience. I walk along the pavement, on the ever so slight curve after the Fast food center, leaving behind patient dogs and the impatient chef. A good night sleep is all that I want.