My dear poppy (pet chat)

Her name was Poppy. She was not my pet. She was my pisi's(paternal aunt). I still dinstinctly remember the first day that I had met her.

We used to live in Delhi then. I think I was in class 3 or 4 (year 1994-95), when we first went to Santiniketan in WB to my pisi's place. Nearing her place there is a sharp turn in the road and as our rickshaw made it, we heard the barking. As we neared the house, the barking intensified and so did my heartbeat. I had always wanted to have a pet dog but due to the small flat we lived in, we could never have and so the prospect that I can play with a dog for the entire duration of our stay was too much happiness for my heart. As we got down from the rickshaw, my eyes were looking for the dog only, not my aunt or my cousin, whom I was meeting for the first time. Pisi was trying to shield the dog lest I get afraid. Pisi and pisu(uncle) were quite apologetic that 'sorry we have a dog and didn't know whether to mention or not, will Bui(my nickname) be afraid?' I said, "afraid? I am overjoyed. Just let me pet it" and thereafter started a bond that I have cherished for all these many years.

The whole vacation we both were inseperables. We both followed each other everywhere. In the mornings, pisi used to tell Poppy to wake me up and she used to nudge herself into the mosquito net and lick me to wake me up. We used to go out for strolls and play fetch with her ball. Whenever I lied down to read the books from my cousin's bookshelf, Poppy was always there beside me. She ran out on her errands too like barking at a passing cycle or maybe a deer that came near the fence of the house but other than those, we stuck together. At night, she slept with me and my cousin on the bed near our feet. My pisi's house was in a very secluded place with forests all around and at night everything went very eerily quiet. I felt very much afraid to go from one room to another in the dark and sleeping alone was a scary prospect for me. Poppy somehow knew that. She always went with me and at night when she slept with us, her warm fuzzy body calmed me and I stayed afraid no more.

Poppy loved to play hide and seek a lot. We used to hide in the house somewhere and she went around looking for us. I was his Bui didi and when she was asked where is Bui didi, she always knew where to find me. Pisi even told that after we left for home and were no more there, for fun they used to ask where is Bui didi and she used to dash up the stairs to my cousin's room to look for me. For three consecutive years we visited Santiniketan during my summer vacations and in all those years Poppy and I shared some amazing moments and created beautiful memories. Saying goodbyes at the end of our trips were always full of tears for me.

Then one fateful morning Pisu called us to inform that Poppy was no more. She had developed some stomach infection and could not recover from that. I wailed my heart out. I cried so hard that our neighbours came calling wondering what was ailing me. Poppy was not my dog, she didn't live with me and we hardly spent 3 months of our lives together but the unconditional love she showered on me on those few beautiful days have stayed with me forever. I have been to my aunt's place a lot many times after that but the visits were never the same without Poppy. The house felt so empty the first time we returned after her passing away.

She was buried in the front garden of pisi's house and a beautiful rose plant blooms there, reminding us of the beautiful soul that was amongst us once. They never again kept a pet because the separation from Poppy was unbearable for all and they knew they never could go through something like that again.

I still miss you Poppy.

"Death ends a life, not a relationship."- Jack Lemmon (American Actor)