I've recently resumed jogging after work, which I had first started last year, but then stopped in between. I've hardly been getting any exercise lately, and my stomach stubbornly refuses to go back to being as flat as it used to be in my college days, despite the fact that I conscientiously stay away from unhealthy food for most of the week, so I felt it was about time I got back to my daily jogging routine.
I've been getting home at or after 9 in the post-meridian on most days over the past few months, so that means that by the time I get out of my formals, into my sneakers and onto the road, it's usually past 9.30.
One day last week, I was out jogging at a little before 10 pm. I was doing my usual warm-up lap of the colony where I stay, when I noticed something small and white on the road, about a hundred metres ahead of me. My colony's tolerably well-stocked with stray cats and dogs, so I instantly assumed that it was a cat, and then put the thought out of my mind.
As I drew closer, it seemed more and more un-cat-like, however. I began to suspect that it was something else altogether, though it seemed like a bit of a far-fetched thought at the time... Then when I drew abreast with the small white animal and came to a mildly surprised stop, my suspicions were confirmed - it was a rabbit!
Now as you might imagine, rabbits aren't exactly a common sight in Bombay... And you certainly wouldn't expect to find one calmly sitting in the middle of one of the inside lanes of your colony!
The rabbit seemed to be sniffing at a spot on the road. It glanced up at me incuriously, and then went back to its inspection of the patch of road. It seemed a little smaller than I'd expect a full-grown rabbit to be, and it didn't seem to be peturbed at all by my proximity, so I surmised that it was a pet rabbit that had gotten out of its owner's house.
I looked around me, to see if I could figure out where the rabbit had emerged from. The lane was deserted; there wasn't a soul in sight. Then I looked at the building in front of me. There were two flats on the ground floor of the building, adjacent to each other. The one on the left had its front door open, and through it, I could see a middle-aged man with an impressive paunch sitting in a vest and what looked like a lungi. I also glimpsed a young man who looked about my age at the rear of the house, but then he disappeared from sight.
I looked back at the rabbit; it was still placidly inspecting its immediate whereabouts. Then I looked around me again; still no sign of any other people. I glanced back at the house with the open front door; but felt mildly uncomfortable at the thought of going and ringing the bell and asking if it was their rabbit; largely because of the slightly scary-looking lungi-clad bloke lurking inside.
I was tempted to jog on and leave the rabbit to its own devices, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that, either. It was a rather small little fellow, and judging by its lack of fear of me, evidently not well-versed in surviving in the wild. My father had once told me about a pet rabbit he'd had as a child, which one day got out of the house, ran away, and then suffered the rather unfortunate fate of being eaten by a dog. As I'd mentioned before, the colony where I stay doesn't exactly suffer from a shortage of stray dogs, and I had a nasty feeling that this little fellow would run the risk of becoming a canine dinner if it was unlucky enough to be spotted by one of them.
I stood there for a minute or two, unsure of what to do next. I peered into the house with the open door again, trying to muster up the courage to go and ring the bell. Then the young man I'd earlier spotted caught sight of me.
He gave me an odd look, no doubt wondering why a stranger in shorts was staring inside his house at 10 at night. I immediately jumped at the opportunity, and waved at him. He walked slowly towards the front door, still probably entertaining suspicious thoughts about my intentions. Then when he reached the door, I called out to him, "Is this your rabbit?"
His face was blank, so I switched to Hindi. I had to strain the old gray cells for a few seconds to remember what you call a rabbit in Hindi (the lastknight will stare down fire-breathing dragons without breaking a sweat, but he does often find himself a little challenged when it comes to parleying in the native language), but fortunately the right word came to me.
I repeated the question in Hindi, and comprehension suddenly dawned upon him. He replied, "No, that rabbit belongs to the people next door," and then went and rang the doorbell of the adjacent flat. When the owner of the flat opened the door, he said to him, "Your rabbit's gotten out, it's on the road!"
The young man then purposefully strode towards the rabbit, and tried to grab hold of it. The rabbit must have sensed that its newfound freedom was about to be cut short, because it suddenly dashed off to one side, away from the man. The man went left, and the rabbit dashed right. Then the man went right, and the rabbit dashed left.
After a few more abortive attempts, the man seemed to realise that catching the rabbit was probably easier said than done, and started trying to shepherd it inside the gate of the house from where it had come, instead. But this idea seemed no easier to implement than its predecessor; when the man tried to chase the rabbit from the left, it dashed past the gate and went further right. Then when he tried to chase it from the right, it dashed past the gate again, and this time continued further left.
I quickly realised that there was no way that one man could corner the rabbit and force it back inside the gate, so I joined the chase, taking up stations by the left side of the gate, as the other chap had the right side covered.
We spent a few merry minutes trying to round up the little fellow, why by now was displaying a surprising turn of agility. The man would chase it from the right, and it would dodge past me and go to the left. I'd then chase it from the left, and it would dodge past the man and go further right.
Then finally, the young man and I managed to flank the rabbit from both the right and the left simultaneously. Faced with no other option, the little fellow charged back into the house from where it had come, much to the relief of all parties involved.
The owner of the rabbit thanked the young man and me, and then the young man thanked me too. I smiled modestly at both of them, and then continued my jog, grinning to myself at the memory of what had just happened.
I say, the lastknight's used to slaying ogres and rescuing damsels in distress, but this is certainly the first time he's ever chased a rabbit... :-)
