Once a year, he’s not just a dog

Jackie stares into his nemesis’s healthy eyes, and a part of him longs to lash out in vengeance.

The first rays of light bathe Kathmandu in gentle shades of pink and yellow, providing a fresh new coat that momentarily conceals the filth of the city. Even the passing breeze refused to carry with it the stench that is to haunt the residents later on in the day. Jackie, a stray canine usually found scavenging near the streets of Singhadurbaar, is awakened by the relentless honking of a truck driver who is using the sound as a signal to address another human some ten metres to his right when even a mere whisper would have sufficed in such silence.