I. The beginning
This story's only too familiar to you my friend, for you are an avid follower of Bollywood's movies. It's a story that's been done to death by Bollywood with a thousand variants but believe it or not, it's the truth in this story that keeps it living in people's hearts. Let me not bore you with factual details, so here we go!!
On a dark, sultry night in one of Bombay's poorly lit lanes; i and my brother came into this world. There wasn't much fanfare when we were born, and we were not the first borns in our family. Born blind and weak, we stumbled and fumbled to get to what every newborn first craves for, Milk!
My home? Well, the street where i was born and the gullies that surrounded it were all mine, provided i could defend it from the others! This was all that i knew and i would ever know until my time would come for this was our turf, a place we could call our own and f*** the hell outta anyone who dared tresspass! The humans called it Thakurdwar, and we couldn't bother less with the names as much as the fighting!
"Life in Bombay's tough, you either kill or be killed!" was one of Mum's fav quotes. I and my brother like most o' my buddies never knew who our father was, and Mum never spoke about him. So, let's not bother about him!
Ah yes, it would be extremely rude if i didn't introduce myself. White Fang is what my Mum called me because i had a set of shiny white fangs when i was two weeks old. As for my brother, he was called Grease because he could show you what he could achieve by means of a sprint! Nobody, absolutely nobody could ever dream of catching Grease.
We never were sticklers for the law except someone else came into our turf, and stealing and fighting were the very first things we learnt in our 'school'!
Bombay's a city with a heart of gold, but she isn't no kind nun to provide you with bread and butter if you aren't quick enough to grab it and run or stand ground and fight!
It's been three summers since the time we entered this world blind and weak, and now...
We lived in a close knit community, a community we call gangs; and there were many such gangs operating all across Bombay. A gang could control an area of three to four streets including a busy street if they had good fighters in it. Ours was a small time gang with quiet, but competent fighters. We were a gang of seven and was controlled by two fighters, one of which was Mum. The other fighter was Silver Streak. We called him SS out of respect. Grease and i thought he was our father until Mum cleared our misconception! Silver Streak was originally from a good household, but he was abandoned when he was found to be too violent. You could never be violent enough to too violent is what i felt. But his owner definitely didn't think so!
Nevertheless, SS remembered the lesson for life. He was one dog who never went looking for fights but never came out of one without severely wounding his enemy if he got into one!
The days were nonchalant, nothing happening except for some exercise until the sun would beat us back into some cosy corner to snooze. After sunset is when the entire action unfolded. Loud barks, growls and howls announced a tresspasser alert and there was a fight and chase for sure! Yippee! Time for some action!
II. Tresspasser Alert!!
Langda came running as fast as his three legs could carry him. Langda had lost a leg in an accident caused by a human. "Intruders, intruders! There are five of them! Hurry, call SS!!" he gasped. This was serious. If Langda returned back to call the gang, this was a serious turf war!
Like a bolt of lighting, and with a thundering roar; SS charged head on. SS's roar was enough to waken all our comrades who were just beginning to return to their lairs after an eventful evening. And so we charged, we charged on our intruders!
They were not surprised. They too charged head on toward us for all their worth with equally menacing war cries. Soon enough; tooth met bone and tooth met fur! The battle had turned into an incomprehensible melee.The noise was deafening!
SS was now silent. The only sound that could be heard from his direction was his jaws in action and his enemy's reaction to it! "Crunch, scrunch, crunch" SS's jaws were busy at work. Grease and i fought as one, back to back. We too snapped anything unfamiliar that went past us. The intruders were not novice, they seemed like seasoned fighters for they were causing casualties among us as well.
The first to fall was Langda. Langda was a fierce fighter, but his missing leg meant he was a moment slow in delivering the killer bite, or getting out of harm's way! Two tough curs caught hold of Langda by his rear legs whilst one went for his throat. Langda despatched him with a squelching crunch to the backbone. But his companion caught hold of him by the neck and bit hard. Langda went down without a sound.
SS soon rallied the others and after three dead, the remaining two bolted! The fight was becoming too unhealthy, and if they stayed for even a minute longer, they too'd join their comrades!
With one dead and two badly wounded, this was a Pyrrhic victory. We could not afford such losses. What if they returned? Or what if there were more?
III. Change
There was a lull after the night of Langda's death for quite some time in terms of fighting. Two twins joined us a week after the fight. They called themselves Tango and Charlie. Both seemed like mercenaries and claimed to be purebred Dobermanns. We didn't mind the caste as long as they could fight and scoot quickly enough.
Everything seemed to be going well until one day...
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