A lesson learnt from an ugly Dog …

Bint-e-Ali
I was highly impressed whenever I read articles in newspapers, especially on issues concerning animals. The authors of the articles became my role models and I would also dream of writing an article someday that would get published in one of the leading newspapers or magazines of our city.
I discussed that matter with my friends and they laughed at me, in fact they even challenged me that I could not write anything that would be considered suitable for publishing. And the challenge had to be completed in two days otherwise I would have to buy ice cream for the whole class. I thought a lot about it and decided to take up the challenge. I started writing my first article. I had no access to the internet as my parents are conservative.  I had no reading material available at my home and still I aspired to write my first article and it ought to get published in the newspaper.
 I was sure that whatever I write it must revolve around the world of animals, because I love these creatures, especially cats. In fact my mother’s pet name is also “Billi” meaning cat. I discussed it with my younger brother who loves horses.
Initially my brother suggested me to write about horses, but I dropped this idea. Then I decided to write about cats. I thought of beautiful cats, long cats, short cats, white and black, so on and so forth. However, to my utter dismay nothing clicked.
I was running short of time, Ophs…, tyranny of deadline was haunting me. How could I give up challenge? I visited my grand parent’s house and came across a book in my uncle’s library. The book had an article about an Ugly Dog. I read the article, though I don’t like dogs. And suddenly an idea came to my mind. I decided to write about an Ugly cat! I picked up my pen and paper and started jotting down whatever I could. I wrote around ten pages and finally while reviewing the article I tore all the pages as the article was not up to mark.
 I was badly shattered. Meanwhile, my mother called me out, “It‘s time to go home dear”. I had not written my article yet! I thought I have lost the bet. Suddenly the devil took me over and a sinister design started building in my mind, I asked my mother to wait for few minutes and I copied an article from the book about the Ugly Dog and tactfully replaced the word “Dog” with the word “Cat”. In no time my article was ready! Hurray, “Ok mom I am ready to go”.
Next day I sent the article to leading newspapers of the city and as expected it was published the very next day, with my name, for the first time, written in the newspaper! I was overjoyed. I proudly flaunted the article to all my friends and relatives. I was completely overjoyed. Everyone was showering their praise about what an excellent writer I was. They encouraged me to continue my writing.
Then came night and I went to sleep, with wonderful memories of the praises and appreciations showered on me by one and all…. I was startled in the middle of the night with a frightening nightmare in which an Ugly and ferocious dog had tied me to a tree that was at the edge of a steep cliff and there was fire and snakes all around me. (I hate snakes)
There was a cat sitting on the chair of the judge and I was accused of having cheated the whole world and breached everyone’s trust. I woke up and found myself shivering and sweating. I realized that what I had done was wrong. I thought of narrating whole story to my mother, but could not muster enough courage. Indeed, I was highly ashamed.
 But I thought that since nobody would ever come to know of my small theft it is better to keep it to myself. That night I had the same nightmare again. I woke up and decided that it was time to be honest with myself. I woke up my father and mother and told them the whole story. Since my parents are quite conservative, I thought they will thrash me for my wrong doings, but instead they appreciated that I had realized my mistake and gathered the courage to tell them the truth.
I wanted to repent and my father suggested me to write another article, this time not copied from any book or material. So I thought the best way to repent is to share this experience with the whole world. I know that many people, including my best friends and relatives will jeer at me after reading this article, but I am convinced about one thing, this article is absolutely original and is not copied from any book. Frankly, I don’t mind if this article is published in any newspaper or magazine, because now I have realized that I can write original and original is always beautiful, but it took an Ugly Dog, to inculcate in me this realization.