“Baggu… stop! Nooo!”
Anu screamed and woke up with a jolt.
“Catch him, Suji. Quick!” She fumbled with her glasses on the bedside table and pushed herself out of the bed, heading to the door.
Her caretaker, Suji, rushed to her. “Relax, Aunty. He’s fine. Please come and sit here.” She held her shoulders tight and walked her to the armchair.
“He got hit by that car. I need to save him. I can’t see him die,” bawled Anu as she leaned back on the chair.
“Sshhhh…” whispered Suji. She massaged her forehead, speaking calmly and clearly. “He is not with us anymore, Aunty. He’s gone… to a better world. He sends you a lot of love. Do you hear what I say?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she responded to Anu with her regularly practised words of consolation for the umpteenth time since she started taking care of her more than half a decade ago.
“But, I saw him running…I wanted to catch him…” Anu gave the same answer, like every other time.
“Right, we tried to. But, he was too quick for us,” Suji replied, yet again.
Anu clicked her tongue and sighed. “I loved that pup, you know. He was my only family after Chandru passed away.”
Suji shook her head. She couldn’t take it anymore. Something had to be done to preserve both their sanity. Or, whatever was left of it. She kneeled beside Anu and held her hand. Anu blinked back tears as she removed her glasses.
“I want you to do something, Aunty. Will you?” She asked, with a practised comfort in her voice.
Anu nodded.
Suji left for the living room and came back with a notebook and a pencil.
“It’s all inside your mind. Can you put them all on paper?”
Anu scrunched her brows and gave a puzzled look.
“Umm, how does Baggu look? Can you show me?” She asked, tapping the paper.
Anu’s eyes lit up. She gave her a warm smile. “Let me try,” she said and was bent over the notebook for the next hour while Suji finished her work for the day.
She didn’t have any hope that even her latest idea would work. She had been trying to distract her through any means possible. But the dream kept coming back. The dog seemed to haunt her forever.
Baggu! What a weird name. Suji thought when she first heard it. But that was the only name that would rhyme perfectly with Chandru. Or, so Anu claimed.
Who was she to argue when everything circled back to Anu’s lost love?
“Too complicated,” she muttered to herself as she made her way to check on Anu.
She was too busy to even look up. Pieces of paper littered the floor. Suji peered at her notebook. She wasn’t sure if she was surprised or shocked.
A spotted pup peeping out of a basket was what met her eyes.
“He’s so cute. Little Baggu!” said Suji and hugged her from behind.
“Is he?” Anu beamed at her pencil sketch.
“If only I’d known that you draw so well…but, why have you put him in a basket?”
“Ah, yes, he is part of a story…” Anu chuckled. “Chandru loved stories, you know.”
“Lovely. Would you draw the entire story then?”
Anu closed her eyes and became thoughtful for a moment. Later, turned a fresh page and started drawing Baggu as if she had meant to do that all her life.
***
A year passed. Probably one happy year at that when Anu drew away to glory. Literally.
Pages were filled with pictures of Baggu in various scenes. One with another dog, whom she called his friend. One on an aeroplane. One at a school full of other dogs. One at a beach. One at a village festival and whatnot.
Her drawings became sharper and more legible with each passing day. Her dreams came to a stop. Their never-ending conversations about Chandru and Baggu’s accident had come to an end. Much to Suji’s relief.
Anu turned into a happier person as she spent time on art. “Balm to her troubled mind,” her doctor had remarked.
But why not take it a notch higher, thought Suji, when she was browsing through piles of notebooks filled with Anu’s drawings. All of them had amazing stories to be shared with the world.
Anu took her first step as an author when a renowned publisher signed a contract for a series of picture books called Baggu, the Naughty Pup.
And that’s how a children’s author was born. Right during her sunset years. Ironically.
***
The doctor’s visit was due. Anu had always struggled to handle huge emotions. The happiness that followed her signing the contract made her anxious.
“Art is therapeutic. Let her continue with it, ma’am. Her anxiety will die down. In fact, Baggu had become her coping mechanism. An antidote, after years of suffering. After Baggu, the dog, maybe Golu, the elephant. Possibly.” The doctor smiled as Suji acknowledged. Anu waited outside, scribbling in her notebook.
Neither Baggu existed in reality. Nor had an accident happened. But the creature had given the old woman a new lease of life, while the only truth was that she had become schizophrenic when she lost Chandru, her husband, to a road accident.
Well, does everything in life happen for a reason, big or small?
~
Header image courtesy – Photo by Eva Bronzini, Pexels
