The first dog's bark...

We were in a local bus
on that hot day.

There was a guy, selling kerchiefs.
“Pure cotton, 10 rupees each”.

One of our fellow travelers bought a piece
and started wiping his sweat.
Within no time we could see
few others buying and wiping.

I then started telling my friend
a known example.
“Suppose in the night,
a street dog starts barking,
then the neighbouring dogs also bark,
listening to that chorus,
dogs of next street also bark,
very soon we can listen
all the dogs of that area barking.
But only the first dog really knows
why it started barking”.

My friend is not a stranger.
Still, he asks strange questions.

As I completed my narration,
he asked me,
“How do you say that
the first dog really knows the reason
for its barking?”.

I just turned my head
to look at the guy,
who bought the first kerchief.

(It was indeed an act of searching
an answer for that strange question).

That guy was still there, sweating…
and was looking helplessly
at his new kerchief.

“Pure cotton, 10 rupees each”…