THE DONKEY RIDE

It was considered to be one of the warmest place in Punjab when my Father was posted at Bathinda in 1975 after we had just moved in from Amritsar. The area was undeveloped and mostly desert with sand all around. The city was under development at that time hence was scarcely populated. It had two huge towers of Thermal power plant due to which the city had gained its importance. I was a  9 year old kid and a student of St Joseph’s Convent school located about three kms from my house. I commuted to and fro on my bicycle with my friends through a short cut route by passing the main road to avoid traffic.

My friends accompanied me while on my way to school. By the time I reached the school 4 to 5 of my friends would have joined me by then. We all locked our cycles together at the cycle stand before going to classes so that we return together and  follow the same routine during our return journey.

On our way to school Javed, his brother, khalid and Shankar would join me at the power house road. Dinesh also would accompany us at times. So we were generally five of us in our group who developed intimacy with each other with passage of time. Apart from sharing our school note books, comics and the story books we also went for the outings on picnics and shared adventure with each other.

 On the outskirts of the city was the barren land and forest area where we often ventured out for a small game with my air gun and catapults with us. We even cooked the bird game in the fields by placing it over a tripod made by joining three thick wooden sticks together and lighting fire underneath to roast the hunted dove and pigeons. The feast was then shared by all of us which we relished after sprinkling salt, pepper and lemon on it. Shankar would keep himself away from the tasting part as was a veggie but took active part in hunting for fun.

We did stunts like jumping from trees holding a bed sheet from a height of about 10 feet on  sandy ground using it as a parachute to descend down experiencing the thrill of floating in air for a few seconds. Though it was a bit risky but the act added to our fun. Such acts were a routine for us in our day to day adventures.

One day Khalid and I were pedalling on our bikes when we saw four donkeys with reins hanging on from their heads. Khalid stopped and asked me to help him take a donkey aside under a shade of a tree with the reins. I helped him and when the animal quietly walked with us a new thought struck his mind.

“I will now mount on him and have a ride”, said Khalid.

“Are you mad he will kick so hard that you will loose all your senses”, I adviced him discouraging in doing the act.

“No! No! I have done it before at Bangalore and believe me it is going to be a great fun, you hold the reins while I mount on him” said Khalid emphatically which intrigued me also  from his confidence. Fearing the kick of the animal I  approached it from the side so that even if it kicked it would be in the direction either to the front or the rear  making me safe in both the cases.

“Don’t worry he is not a cow that he will kick you in front as donkeys and horses always kick at the back”, said Khalid again.

As I caught hold of the donkey’s leash and Khalid was about to mount from the side keeping his left hand on my right shoulder for  support to mount its back the donkey got panicky and suddenly jumped ahead to save himself from the load. Khalid fell flat on his bums on the ground cursing me that I had left the reins of the donkey.

“What could I do? By the time I could tighten the grip of my hand he just vanished with a jerk for which I was not prepared,” I clarified  to him and agreed to his point to tighten the grip next time.

“We will not leave that donkey and I will show you how to take a ride,” said Khalid getting up in anguish cleaning the backside of his trousers with both his hands.

We came back to his house and the matter was discussed with Javed who was actually my classmate and elder brother of Khalid. After hearing the incident he said advising Khalid,

“We should be careful next time and catch the way we did it at Bangalore”

“Yeah” replied Khalid.

“Then we have to get those ropes, the big and a small one,” said the experienced  Javed to his younger brother with me on the listening watch.

“We have it in our court yard,” said Khalid excitingly and he wasted not a second to get it.

We were now three of us on the task; To catch a donkey and then to take a ride on it. There were two tasks and not any one of it was simple. First to chase the animal and catch it and second to mount on it and take the ride.

Javed explained that after locating a donkey two of us would hold the longer rope from its either ends and run towards him forcing him to reach a corner having two sides blocked and the third side will be blocked by us with the rope resulting him to be trapped in between the three sides of a triangle. As soon as he gets trapped between the three sides, the loop made of the smaller rope will be put in one of his front leg quickly by the third person and it will be immediately lifted up so that his balance is only on his remaining three legs on the ground as a result of which he will not be able to jump or kick as would lose balance on his two remaining legs if he plans to kick with the third leg.  It was a deeply thought of and logical plan which seemed to have emerged after a lot of experience of my expert friends.

The first task of chasing and bringing the animal to the nearest available corner available in situ was a difficult one as it involved a lot of running and chasing the animal while the second task was of courage since involved risk of getting hurt if not acted swiftly with confidence.

The target was soon located chewing the cud like a cow in a nearby field; a lovely looking donkey of pure white colour and medium height till our chest levels. He had long beautiful ears which he raised and lowered time and again moving his tail simultaneously to shoo away the flies. He was looking down towards the field where he was grazing. We located a corner with a wall of the house as one side and a fence at right angles to it  the other making a perfect place where he was to be trapped.

I and khalid held the long rope from its ends which was about 3m long and quietly lifted it up at just about one feet from the ground. On getting the signal from Javed we started approaching him quietly from his rear so that were out of his sight lest he runs away. We were about 10 m from him when Khalid indicated with a jerk in the rope to raise it further up at two feet and run towards the animal. I did as was told and we sprinted towards him. Sensing from the sound of the disturbed grass created due to our sprint he understood that something is wrong and as a result he also sprinted ahead. His two leaps took him about 10 more metres away from us and we chased and chased till we were tired. The first plan failed.

We waited for him to stop which he did and we were again on the task. He also enjoyed playing with us and would stop after two leaps, waited for us to come near him and again leaped forward as we approached him. He made us sweat and we were dead tired within a few minutes.

Javed called and told us to wait for some more time. The next move was not to chase him but to collect some grass hold it in hand  and then lure him. We soon collected a bunch of it to present the bouquet to our friend. I took the grass and approached the donkey alone. Surprisingly he did not run, first because it was a friendship gesture, secondly he was hungry and preferred a ready made meal thirdly, he was sure that there was no rope with me to catch him and lastly that I was all alone. As I approached him he gazed with his attractive eyes into mine giving an innocent look.  I offered the bunch of grass to him. As he brought his mouth forward to get hold of the grass with his eyes focussed on me Khalid shouted,

“Catch hold of his ears”

“Shut up! I cannot do this he has approached me with a gesture of friendship how can I betray him. It would amount to cheating and be an abuse to the trust of a human being. We can resort to it later”

I replied to Khalid and continued feeding him gently caressing his forehead with smooth fur on it. My hand strokes went downwards unlike in xase of a dog where it is  the other way round.

Khalid had tried to use me as a bait with a bunch of grass to attract that beautiful donkey but it failed due to the trust which I maintained between me and that animal. It made me forget that I was to catch him. As a result of my inaction to hold his ears Khalid started to advance slowly towards me so that he comes within the range to hold that  donkey. The donkey however sensed his motive and immediately pulled the grass from my hand  jumped and ran away some distance  After taking a few steps he looked at Khalid and brayed,

“Dhaaaaaaaaaanchhooooooooooooooo” and galloped few leaps ahead indicating that he is smarter than us.

We were tired now and it was for sure that this Mr Smarty is not going to be our game for the day. Javed then pointed to another donkey who stood at the same place where Smarty was there initially. Khalid now gestured me to start over again and give a fresh try.

Inspite of being so tired I  again started off to achieve the expected  result as we had already wasted two hours. We chased him similarly but this time we brought him to the trap since he got confused where to go. This time the the animal behaved like a true donkey. Making use of the situation Javed made a lightening move and got hold of his left forelimb. He raised it in his right hand to about one feet from the ground bringing the weight on his three legs after which he did not budge. The small rope was immediately tied to his forelimb and held tight by Javed . At this juncture Khalid attempted to mount from the side but could not as the donkey was able to place his foot on to the ground since the rope loosened from Javed’s hand but was immediately pulled up as I joined Javed in pulling it back again.

Khalid now attempted mounting from the rear and managed to sit on it with a jump. He adjusted his position slightly towards the rear on the donkey.

After sitting and securing his position holding the donkey firmly by its fur on the neck he asked Javed to leave the small rope.. As soon as Javed left the rope the donkey jumped and started to gallop. Khalid was on it and must have enjoyed those three leaps after which he carefully slipped back getting down from his rear but slipped while landing on the ground falling on the loose mud. He was luckily not hurt but had his quota of enjoyment for the day. Watching him thrilled I also got inspired for having the next the donkey ride.

Next time I took the ride but my heart skipped the beat  when I took the first solo leap with him. After the second leap I carefully slid down from his rear side fortunate enough not to get a kick from his back side. I learnt it later that horses and donkeys are to be mounted and dismounted from the sides. The donkey was kind enough to all of us for not kicking us from his back.

This new sport spread like a wildfire in our group and it became a routine affair thereafter to have the donkey ride. We soon became experts in catching them and having a solo ride thereafter.

One fine day we took our friend Shankar with us to get him the ride as he also had expressed his desire to experience the same after listening to our adventure stories which we narrated in the school. We started the same exercise. Shankar had just brought his brand new cycle with him that day. The teams were divided into two groups comprising two of us in each including the ropes. Javed held the smaller rope.

We chased a donkey who somehow went towards the market side this time but we followed him to divert his move towards the trap. While he was being chased by us he took a turn from the other side astride the main road where a turban dyer shop was located. The turbans were spread in the open and its ends were tied to the trees for drying them  up in sun after dyeing.There were number of them placed adjacent to each other. The donkey was on the chase by our two teams and finding no other way to escape he turned towards the area where the turbans were hung for drying. Having no other option to escape anywhere else he went right through them tearing them one after the other in despair. I could see him running ahead thereafter from in between the torn turbans. It appeared as if some missile went past straight through all the turbans as the objects at the other end were visible through the torn coloured turbans.

Seeing the turbans tear into pieces the shopkeeper first looked towards them as if was watching some action movie but after coming to his senses and realising that the turbans belonged to his customers he ran after the donkey with a stick to shoo him away. It was too late as the animal was already hundreds of yards away from him by then. He looked at us holding the ropes in our hands and understood the complete story within a fraction of a second. He ran towards us and gave us a good chase. Since he was too fast he caught hold of Shankar and started abusing him in punjabi of which Shankar could not make a head or tail of it. He confiscated his new bicycle and asked him  to call his Father to whom he would return the bicycle after taking the cost of damages incurred. Shankar was shocked and very depressed. He pleaded to the shopkeeper time and again to return his brand new cycle but all in vain. Shankar did not cry but returned to the next crossing where we all were waiting for him. As he narrated the whole incident we all became very tense.

How much money do you have in your pocket?” asked Javed from me.

“Five rupees” I said.

“And you?” he asked Shankar

“Three” replied Shankar

“What about you Khalid?”

“I just have fifty paise left” said Khalid

“And I have about eight rupees, which makes it to a total of Rs 16 and paise fifty” said Javed.

“How much does a turban cost? Javed asked me.

“Hey! I have not yet started to tie it nor have any idea of its cost” I replied.

Nobody amongst us had any idea of the cost of  a turban. Our young minds were under the impression that we would be able to reach the cost price by our collection and resolve the matter at our level to get Shankar’s bike released from the shopkeeper. Everyone feared that if the matter reached our parents we surely would land up in a serious problem.

Shankar was the most tensed as his property was confiscated and hesitated to go back home. It was getting dark and our playtime was also coming to an end so was Shankar’s patience. Not being able to hold on any longer he said,

“Lets go to the shopkeeper and ask him the cost”

“Are you mad he only has your bicycle and if we go to him he will keep one of us as security and create a ruckus, maybe he may report to police to get his money,” said Khalid discouraging his idea to be implemented.

“Yes we should not go now,” added Javed to his statement

“Ok then we should go to some other shop and ask the cost of turban,” I put forward my advice to them.

My advice was accepted and we proceeded to another shop. When we came to know the actual cost of a new turban we all were shocked as it turned out to be about Rs 150/- each. We were not knowing how many of them were torn by our friend; the donkey. Even if we calculate for three of them it would be a minimum of Rs 450/- and we were planning to sort the matter out with just Rs 16 and paise fifty only. So there was no point hiding the fact any longer and we adviced Shankar to narrate the whole story to his Dad. We also suggested him to add in his narration that the donkey went on his own and we did not have any role in it to be on the safer side. Shanker with great fear and hesitation had no choice but to agree. With great difficulty we persuaded him to move towards his house without his bicycle.

We all waited at a distance from his house as were not interested in sharing the gifts he was expected to receive from his Dad. After some time we saw Shankar coming out of his house along with his Dad hurriedly. They both went on a scooter and we followed them from a distance. They reached the spot where his bicycle was parked near the turban dyeing shop. His Father went to the owner and was having a chitchat with him which slowly turnout to be heated conversation. The discussion was loud and we clearly heard the shopkeeper conversing in punjabi blaming us all for forcing the donkey to run through the turbans converting them into bits and pieces of rags.

“What do I do with these and what reply do I give to my customers when they come to collect their turbans from me” pleaded the shopkeeper to Shanker’s father.

“But the donkey ran on his own so why do you blame the children?”argued his Dad with him.

“Sir! Do you think I am so mean that I would confiscate their bicycle for it if they were not to be blamed. You please ask your son and his friends who were with him. They all were having a fun game playing with the donkeys chasing them” replied the shopkeeper to his father truthfully.

His Dad looked at Shankar and understood the case.

“Are you sure that it was their fault?” asked Shanker’s father to the shopkeeper for the last time in his south Indian accent.

“Sir I do not have any proof except asking the donkey as kids will not agree being scared of thrashing. You may ask the donkey if you so desire” the shopkeeper said with a smile.

Shanker’s Dad looked at the donkey wondering how he could have torn the turbans while we looked at his next reaction.

The donkey meanwhile brayed again and ran away from there indicating to Shanker’s father that what the shopkeeper is saying is pure truth and nothing else so he should pay the bill and finish off the matter.

Probably Shanker’s father received his message and asked the shopkeeper

“How much is the damage?”

“Sir the donkey has torn four turbans but since they were not new ones I’ll ask for only three hundred rupees.”

His father immediately gave three currency notes of Rs 100/- each from his purse and handed them over to him.

We saw Shanker holding his bicycle with a sense of relief on his face. He was happy and quietly pedalled his new bike following his Father on scooter while they proceeded towards their house. We also followed him to console him and say sorry for the inconvenience caused. We stopped about hundred metres from his house and soon after 10 minutes Shanker came out after locking his bicycle in his house.

We all met him as fans meet their favourite film star for getting the autographs. He narrated the conversation of his Dad with the shopkeeper word by word while we listened to him with raised eyebrows. After he finished I said on behalf of all of us,

“Now we will not play such games as it has led to so much of loss.”

“Next time we will not carry our bicycles if we have to resort to such adventures” said Khalid while we all looked at him.