TALE OF TWO DONKEYS..

OFF-TRACK

Amitabh Shukla

I never realised that watching the simple activity of laying of a new road in my colony would prove to be a learning lesson for me. Watching the activity for a few days in a row has made by some sort of an expert on the behavior and attitude of donkeys, the favourite animal of the Dhobi (washerman).

One fine morning, I was woken by the sound of municipal trucks offloading stones for relaying the colony road. The job of distributing this important material in road building in every nook and corner of the colony was handed over to the donkeys, more precisely, their owners.

Sheer curiosity led me to watch donkeys and their behavioral psychology for three days in a row. Now, the owner of Chunnu-Munnu, the two donkeys who ferried the stones below the road in my flat, had devised a simple strategy.

He loaded the stones in jute cloth bags on the back of the donkeys. Chunnu-Munnu walked to the place where the small pile of stones were to be offloaded without the need for any direction. No goading and bad mouthing. They simply stood at the place, waiting with extreme patience till their owner arrived and offloaded it. After the load was taken off, they walked back to the place where the loading was being done. A simple work done with clockwork precision and timing.

Chunnu-Munnu never made any noise in the entire exercise. I thought they must have got thoroughly bored with the work. They never did. Even if they did, it never appeared in their behaviour.

The exercise continued for three days. I kept watching the two animals from my balcony in an attempt to understand them better. Their approach to work baffled me. No fooling around, not looking anywhere except down below and no pretensions.

My journalistic curiosity finally led me to strike a conversation with the owner of Chunnu and Munnu. He went on giving a lecture on the virtue of donkeys and even described it as the best friend a person like him has. “They are intelligent as you have seen yourself. Once, they have seen the place of work, they never lose their way. Whatever the distraction may be, they are as steadfast in their work as no animal can ever be,” the owner said.

Pleased with the work of the two donkeys, the owner gave them names – Chunnu and Munnu. “They are obedient, honest to their work, do not threaten anyone by making noises and eat only when asked to,” continued the owner.

I learned that both Chunnu and Munnu and can walk all the three kms to their home in a village without losing their way. “If I purchase something from the market, load it on them and ask them to move, they will stop only at my house and no where else,” said the proud owner.

After learning the “donkey lesson”, I decided to have a fresh look on two other animals who roam around in the colony – dogs and stray cattle. I started looking at the virtues of donkeys in these animals. But the street dog barked at me when I came home late at night after an evening shift. Then the Bull has created so much of a havoc in the colony and people change their way when they see it approaching.

Now, I was convinced about the “hidden talent” of the donkeys. It still, however, baffles me when somebody uses the word “donkey” in abuses.

(January 2011)