MY DREAM SHALL HAPPEN………..
Written by Mrs Gayatri Barua

Puss always wished she could go to the golden sand and the lovely blue water that she had seen on the big screen in the town square. Puss loves the sound of the gushing waters. It makes her dream a lot - of vast beautiful places covered with sand. She has seen them all in her dreams and not in reality.

Puss does not know how she could make her dream come true, because she is a stray cat, who lives near the garbage bin in the town square; and Puss does not have one leg. She is lame. Puss has made many attempts to walk towards the sea and fulfill her dream, but she has failed on each occasion as it is impossible for a lame cat to walk such a distance.
But Puss is determined that one day she would fulfill her dream. But how?
When she cannot walk that far she has to find of some other way.

One day while Puss is busy thinking of her future course of action the garbage truck comes to take the garbage from the bin. She keeps looking at the truck as it starts picking up the garbage. Suddenly her eyes become brighter. Puss gets an idea. Slowly she comes near the bin and throws herself into the van. No one could see her. Puss knows that the garbage truck takes the garbage to a spot that is very near to the places of her dream. Puss comfortably hides herself in the van. She thinks, at last I will get to see the lovely blue water.

Suddenly something hit Puss. She gets hurt. As the truck loads more garbage a part of it falls on her. So she screams. It immediately draws attention of the assistant from the truck. He comes close to where the scream came from and notices Puss. He asks the driver to immediately stop the engine. After the operation is stopped, the assistant climbs in to van and takes Puss out of it. Puss screams again but not in pain. In fact she is trying to tell the man, "Please don't take me out of the van. I want to go to that beautiful vast land covered with sand."

But her meowing does not mean anything to the assistant. Instead Puss hears the assistant saying, "Poor Puss, how did you get in the van? You are not garbage!"

The assistant carefully leaves Puss near the bin and gets on to the truck. After a while the truck leaves and Puss looks at the truck going away. She lets out a sigh as she feels that her hope of fulfilling her dream vanishing with the truck disappearing at distance.

Days pass by. One day as she crawls along the town square looking out for food, Puss notices the people, so happy and cheerful. She observes the children playing the square. One of them even trips over Puss. Then she sees the older folks sitting together perhaps remembering their hay days. Puss goes near them to get attention, but they are too busy with
themselves. They do not even notice her.

Suddenly Puss notices an old man calling her. This old man is seated in one corner of the square, alone, with his clothes tattered and he has a sloppy look. He is eating some nuts and when Puss goes near him, he throws some nuts for her to eat. Puss is touched by the gesture. As she sits near him and starts eating the nuts, she observes the old man
closely. He has wrinkles all over his face and his eyes look lost. She notices him gazing at the children. Puss too looks at the children who are busy playing having no worries whatsoever. The old man then gives a mysterious smile and looks away towards the horizon.

Puss thinks the old man looks very mature and experienced. Various thoughts go through Puss's mind. This old man must have traveled a lot and seen many places. May be if she could go with him she would be able to those beautiful places that she has been dreaming of. So quietly, Puss pushes herself into the old man's cloth bundle without his knowledge.

After settling down inside the bundle Puss waits. She peeps out to check if everything is okay. The old man is busy looking at distance and lost in his own world. Puss then closes her eyes to take a nap. Suddenly puss feels that she is being lifted. As she looks out of the bundle, she comes to know that the old man is with the bundle on his back. She
hears him breathing heavily. Puss could see the road and the old man's one foot.

Then Puss notices something else that shakes her up. The old man is holding a wooden stick and with the help of this stick he is walking. Puss looks down to see that he has only one leg, exactly like her. Puss immediately realizes that her weight is definitely troubling him. Puss
feels ashamed of herself and jumps out of the bundle. She settles down under the bench and looks at the old man going away from her. Puss curses herself for what she has just done. How could she even think of her dream so selfishly? Puss silently limps and goes to her home near the garbage bin.

As days go by, Puss slowly starts accepting the truth, that it will never be possible for her to see the beautiful golden sand and the vast blue sea. Puss starts taking life as it is. She watches people in the town square busy in their activities. They sometimes give her something to eat. Children sometimes even pat her and call her by different names.
Puss often remembers the old man with wrinkles, but she never gets to meet him again.

One morning while sleeping near the bin, Puss hears a big sound. She wakes up and gets startled. She looks around and notices that someone has just thrown something in the bin. Puss goes close to the bin and sees a yellow wooden thing with wheels. She realizes it is a cracked skateboard. She has seen children moving around on them in the square. And the next thought which comes to Puss's mind, makes her excited! At last I can go to the gushing waters! Of course this will take me there. I will learn how to ride a skateboard from the children. With a feeling of ecstasy, Puss pushes the skateboard near her house and lies on top of it, purring and gazing at the sky above, recapturing her dreams.