It all happened in the day of Holi  some years back. After a torrid session with all kinds and forms of colour floating around all day long, our seniors of the locality planned a picnic in the club house at night. It was decided that everybody willing would come to the club premises to attend the meeting on that at 4.30 in the afternoon. Accordingly we all gathered there within that time. It almost looked like the meeting of the vybgior. The  united colour of Holi. It took ten minutes to set everything about the menu. But there was the main item yet to be settled. Although most of us voted for mutton curry, the decision received a severe set back when it was found that inclusion of that item would pinch our pocket the hardest.   

A great hullabaloo started among us. There were two factions—those who still argued in favour and those could not agree to pay much for that single item. There came the man Shankarda who otherwise sitted mute all through, in the frame. “I got an idea.” Everybody stopped suddenly to hear the solution. “Will it be okay if I arrange the meat?” he looked like a red-faced monkey trying to pacify a bunch of crazy orangutans in a cocooned cell (totally attributed to Holy).

“Yesterday when Chotu and I were going thorugh Nabapally (next to our Mahalla)  we saw a black sheep grazing in the lawn of a yellow building just by the side of the pond. Hey Chotu why don’t you tell them?” Chotu seconded with a nod and smile (it looked as if a black beer hurriedly munching potatoes).

With this idea placed in the nick of time Shankarda became an instant hero among us. It was decided that he and Chotu would go for the mission. In the mean time, others would engage themselves in arranging everything. It was also decided that to honour them both, no contribution would be charged on them.

At around 9:30 , they both took a bicycle (Chotu sat behind with a sack and a rope in his hand)  and went off. They reached at the destination within a couple of minutes. They could easily locate the house. As being the Holi night, most of the people were tired for doing so much of activities from dawn to dusk. The road looked deserted. The defused light of the distant street lamp also helped them. They leaned the cycle on the wall and sneaked into the lawn. They could now notice that there was a thatched little room on the right side of the house. Wasting no time  Shankarda had opened the door and Chotu, already prepared, pounced on  it , grabbed its mouth first and then smoothly slipped it into the sack. Within seconds they came out from there and on the way to the street. Sitting  on the career with great difficulty while  still clutching tightly the mouth of it so that it could make no  sound, Chotu told Shankarda to ride it faster as it was moving frantically to get out. By now Shankarda drove the cycle like Michael Schumacher and almost touched down the ground of the club in record breaking 45 seconds!! Still heavily panting they got into the room with Chotu having the sack on his hand. There was a huge roaring of the club members cheering them for their ‘Mission Accomplished’. The uproar almost blew off the roof top.

Shankarda was offered a chair to sit under the fan. Every thing was arranged. The rice was boiling on the oven placed in one corner. Another corner all the spices, oil, chopped potatoes, onions, gingers, garlic were ready to use. One of us closed the door and the windows so that it could not flee outside.  With everybody stood encircled staring at the bag Chotu very gently put the sack down to the ground, unfastened it  and opened the mouth. Now in  a flash we could notice a black something jumped out and started barking  with its heart out, running everywhere!!! With utterly disbelievingly we found that it was not a sheep!! It was a petty country black dog!! For the first few seconds we were jumping like a cat in the hot tin-roof. In the mean time, it kept on running everywhere. It trod on the spices, went over all the stacked materials, split the salt, turned down the oil pot. Within few moments we reached to the time when the world was created and the chaos reigned.