The ugliest scene I have ever set eyes on
It happened just a few houses away and in an entirely unexpected manner. It was late afternoon and I was returning from school. There was a small cluster of people crowding the roadside. I pretended to be ignorant about it. as if I had not noticed anything at all for I was scared. I kept to my side of the road and wanted to slough away. Apparently some altercation had taken place. People were talking loudly and vociferously. But it was an ordinary altercation until suddenly it took a turn for the worse, it became a physical scuffle. One man took out a knife. I wanted to run away but my feet were as heavy as lead. Rooted to the spot I watched the rest of the fight. Another man brought forth an iron rod from somewhere. It appeared to be premeditated as if the people had come prepared for some kind of confrontation.
Suddenly I heard the barking of a dog and I tried to find out the direction from which the sound was coming. There was a small dog quite lost in the crowd and yelping away around the legs of the people. Perhaps he had bitten someone. There was a shriek. What had happened ? It was difficult to find out immediately. The weapons started moving to and fro, it was a chaotic scene – frightening, stupid, brutal but still human. What turned it into an ugly scene was when the man stabbed the dog. It yelled horribly as it lay on the ground. This, a completely unnecessary act. made the whole thing ugly and brutal. I felt sick and miserable. The dog was by now almost dead – though there was a very slight vibration in the body as the blood gushed out. It was an ugly scene.
The brutal attack on the dog caused a stir, and it made it quite obvious that it was something more than an ordinary quarrel. People crowded around but the crowd maintained its distance, scared and frightened. I was pushed into a side lane and was content to hide myself behind the wall of people. I still felt very weak and shaky after having been sick there on the roadside. My mouth tasted as if filled with sand, dry and dusty. I had no voice to talk or cry for help.
What happened next was even more cruel and inhuman than what had already happened. The man who had the iron rod hit hard on the scalp of another man. One could almost hear the crack of the bone as the man fell down. Perhaps if the crack was not audible, the mind was so keyed up that one imagined it. Seeing the man collapse, some people rushed towards him and many others away from the spot. The culprits disappeared. None of them were to be seen. Only the dog lay in the pool of blood and the man unconscious kept him company. I couldn’t sleep the whole night; the sight haunted me and has left a permanent scar on my young mind. I feel scared and unhappy when the roads are lonely or quarrels take place.
