Social Short Story – Indifferent Neighbours
Photo credit: Alvimann from morguefile.com
Every Man Is Surrounded By A Neighbourhood Of Voluntary Spies
——Jane Austen
A few days back my husband had gone out of station for an official conference and my daughter and myself were managing in his absence. My daughter was busy preparing for her forthcoming school exams and I busied myself completing my household chores so that in the evening I could take my evening stroll and make my grocery purchases from the nearby market.
Being sultry, I decided to go a bit late. By 6 p.m i left the house, took my evening stroll, made my purchases and hurried home as dusk had fallen and my daughter was alone . As i stepped in our common apartment gallery, by chance i the tube light was out of order and it was a bit dark , i saw a long , rope as i was about to step on it, there was a movement.
The buff coloured, shiny rope was a two feet long serpent , slithering into the overgrown shrubbery outside the apartment. I froze in terror . My apartment being on the ground-floor, i reached home in a jiffy, jangled the door-bell, the door opened and my daughter was frightened to see my state. My face had broken into cold sweat, i threw the purchases on the table, like a person possessed i started screaming like a banshee. My daughter tried to soothe me, with a glass of cold water.
I started making frantic calls to the apartment security. I asked them to send the guards at the earliest. I thought it was a venomous serpent, and i knew fear would not let me rest in peace,I called up a few neighbours staying in my apartment but no one wanted to take any risk. Most stayed on the 1st and 2nd floor, so for them it was a problem that ground-floor residents faced during monsoons. They gave a deaf ear and a blind eye to my problem. Not a soul bothered to come and see to our welfare.
A few so called friends , listened to me and gave me a few valuable tips to keep serpents at bay but did not bother to come. The apartment guards roused from their slumber, came after an hour and dusk had turned to night.They searched the shrubbery with their flickering, rather old and dim flashlights but their search yielded no success. My ground-floor neighbours feigned ignorance and watched from afar.
There were tears in my eyes seeing the indifference of my neighbours, while all this hullabaloo was going on outside, my smart daughter took the help of the internet, or the 3P , meaning—–Peoples-Problem-Panacea, located the wildlife contact number , asking their assistance. They were helpful, they asked me the description of the serpent and they too felt it was a venomous serpent.
The director sent his wildlife team, though it was nightfall. The team combed the place but were unsuccessful. They promised to come the next day and carry out the combing operation with a couple of snake charmers. As they left, i felt weary fearing my fate had i stepped on the reptile. My daughter tried her level best to make me eat dinner but not a morsel went down my throat. She went off to sleep as she had to attend school next day.
I put buckets of water on sluices and drains as suggested by my so called helpful neighbours. I lay in bed, counted sheep, had visions of a valiant RIKKI TIKKI TAVI, the mongoose character created by Rudyard Kipling in his famous Jungle Book, who fought valiantly and killed the serpent, i wanted one to help me out of this predicament. I tried to sleep but it eluded me.
As soon as i saw a light in the eastern horizon i knew dawn had broken and maybe my prayers would be answered. I did my household chores though my head was reeling due to lack of sleep. I sent my daughter to school, true to their word the wildlife people came and started their combing operation in the shrubbery and parks around the apartment. While this took place, people craned their necks from their balconies, as if in anticipation of rabbits and gold rings appearing from a magician’s fedora. None came to my doorstep.
At last the combing operation yielded results, they caught the rascal from underneath a bush, they showed it to me and i nodded in mute testimony. They packed it in a gunny sack to be handed over to our local zoo. It was indeed a venomous species of the krait variety. After they left, i let out a sigh of relief and a simultaneous gargantuan yawn. Though i saw the indifferent attitude, yet i felt–If God Be For Us Who Can Be Against Us.
Gone are the days when people shared an easy camaraderie with neighbours. Today’s scenario is only me and mine no you.
I can pen down a few lines–
Unhelpful neighbor,arrogant and rude
He thinks he is funny, he is so crude
She speaks one minute, ignores the next.
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