Dear diary,
The day was usual. I rested my chin on the moist ground, to cool off. It felt synonymous to heaven. Although heaven was the day when I got to steal that chicken breast from the dustbin.

My days and nights seem to remain the same. Just as they were when mama and my siblings were together. I still remember the day when mama sniffed me for the last time. Her wet nose brushed against my cuddly stomach and it tickled me. Mama did the same with my siblings. Although back then, we were only three siblings in total. We were six when we were born, but three of us just didn't wake up from sleep after that cold night. We tried our best to wake them up, but we ended up in hiding them beneath the earth that we dug out so that no one else disturbs them in their sleep. But when mama sniffed me for the last time, I placed my paw on her forehead. I hadn’t seen that look in her eyes before, the drained and fatigued look. Mama raised us near the tea stall in the big city. We never got to know much about her. Questions like 'Who is mama's mama?' were a conundrum to us. But she never failed to bring a piece of bread for all of us. However rough, her coat was always comforting for a good nights sleep. But then, after that day she never returned. I waited under the banyan tree for three days straight. But then my brother and sister had found an unoccupied dustbin.I had to let go.

  We stayed there for just about a couple of days, when my brother too had been lured into the sleeping game. My sister and I then grew up near a meat shop. We never interacted with humans, mama never allowed us. But the meat shop owner would let us have a bite or two of meat at the end of the day. The bigger dogs did chase us, but the meat shop owner shooed them away. I felt that I would live there all my life and lick the meat shop owners feet whenever he visited. I had never felt the way I did for him. I don’t know, he wasn’t my mama, but he was someone, whom I did love dearly. My tail wagged all the way when I saw him. My heartbeat went soaring when he was around. But nothing lasts in my life. I had grown up, so had my sister. The meat shop didn't seem to stir for a month. I guess, it was time that my sister and I separated. 

 My sister and I walked together for a while. I didn't want to do this, it just had to happen.We touched each other with our nose for a short moment and took one last breath together, before we parted our ways. I never looked back, to see where she went, because I knew I’d run and join her again. As it might seem to me, meat and milk were the things that I missed the most, but some days I just miss running along with my sister. Some days, I just want to rest my chin on that rough coat of my mothers'. 

 Now that I have settled in a high end colony of the big city, there are lots of other dogs here. At times I feel jealous. They walk with their head held high, coats scented like jasmine and tails oozed regal finish. I used to wish, I were just as lucky as them. But their picturesque life was marred by the presence of a leash. The leash which was held by a human. Although I, too, was deeply attached to a human and would love to see him once again, but I could never bear to live when a leash hanging around my neck. I yearn for someone to love me again, but my ephemeral interactions with everyone have stolen my will power. I don’t want to meet anyone who will love me a day and make me wag my tail, and disappear the next day. Probably, the moist ground comforts me enough to live a life devoid of love. But I will always remain thankful to those who made my life bearable. When I look up at the night sky, although the stars are fewer in the city, but they are enough to tell me about the grand journey ahead.

The dog, next street.