Indians Abroad

Few days back I made a trip to Rome. It was just a one day trip and I returned by the night train. Mt train from Rome was is night with a 10:50 departure. I spend a long time waiting at the station’s waiting room. Then I decided to come to the platform from where the train would leave. On my way to platform I met some Indians. I just saw them but didn’t communicated.

They were looking quite modern. Children communicating in very good English ascent, gave a clue to me that they must be UK based. Few minutes later it my guess turned out to be right.

At the platform, both me and them raced towards the empty bench. The bench was luckily big enough to accommodate me and some of them. There were two woman, two men and two kids. One woman was trying to be very stylish, every now and then moving her hands trough her hairs. Her husband was brought up in UK ans was as likely trying to be very English. What caught my attention most was, both husband an wife were criticizing strongly about the various things in India. They started with the facility of trains, saying they are not comfortable and secure. The other couple was trying to be against them, and thus were putting points in favor of Indian government.

At that point hearing all that I felt bad, but when I later thought over it again, I realized that to some extent the criticism is valid. Certainly for a person who has been brought up with such luxuries with definitely complain on the arrival of any discomfort, because the mind has been trained to live in comfort and luxury.

I wondered has India been also full with luxury and free from problems, such criticism will have no place.

A Dog’s Life, Chapter 3

Time passes by and I became more close to Koonchu. I still had love for Tomy, but I realized that whenever I came with good food to give them, Koonchu used to expect that I would give her a large portion since she is more dear to me. Ofcourse they were husband and wife. Koonchu was loyal to his husband Tomy, but I can’t say the same thing for Tomy. The reason why I’m saying this is that I never saw Koonchu with any other Dog, other than Tomy and she never used to go to other colonies to visit. Partially may be she felt that she doesn’t have enough strength to fight etc. But Tomy as I said earlier was a very masculine type dog, who feels proud in fighting and being rash and used to visit many nearby colonies to establish his rule in other areas.

Life of these street dogs is weird. They live in utter poverty, eating from rubbish and many times eating shit of other animals. On the other hand, some dogs are kept as pets in house. These pet dogs are brought up with very much love and affection. I feel a very strange contrast, when people come out to take a walk in park with their pets. The striking contrasts between street dogs and pet dogs: thin or healthy, shining or dull, clean or dirty etc. Well anyway, I will write about this later describing the social stigma faced among street dogs and the loneliness faced by pets.

Returning to the story …

Winter was approaching, it was if I remember right was middle of November. Both Tomy and Koonchu came to our house and we gave some bread to them for eating. To my surprise I noticed that both Tomy and Koonchu were injured. Koonchu was injured in leg, as if someone drove a vehicle on her leg or hit her with a stone. Tomy was hit on backof neck I don’t know by what, but it was bleeding and seems to be a deep wound. Generally these street dogs when they get injured, they lick the area of wound in order to heal it soon. Koonchu was able to lick her leg injurie while Tomy can’t. This was serious. I also didn’t know what to do. No one cares and so was I. I thought that it would go away in few days and then they would be healthy again. But I didn’t know that the injury on neck would become the cause of death for Tomy.

Days passed, Koonchu recovered herself from injury while Tomy can’t. With the passage of time, his wound was getting bad to worse, and the climate was also getting cooler day by day. Infact Tomy also came to know that his condition is getting serious. Now he hardly go anywhere in other colonies. Just eat food and stay close to our house. One morning we left the main gate of house open after we threw the waste, forgot to close it. After sometime when I went outside to do something else, I noticed that Tomy was sitting just at the door step of the house. His wound was smelling very bad and there were flies buzzing around him which he was trying to kill by his mouth. I tried to make him go out, but he was not going. I even brought some food from inside, so that his greed for food would bring him out of the house, but this also didn’t help. Ultimately my Dad has to force him out of house. He was looking very emotional. Already he was a street dog thus not liked by anyone except few, on top of that he got a foul smelling wound which make repel the people even more. This situation was really heart breaking.

After couple of days the wound was very serious. There was pus and mucus in the wound which was dropping every now and then from the wound. It was not only looking very ugly but also the smell was awful. Even we kept a bit distance from him and did not let him to come near the house, while at same time Koonchu was given preference. We hardly used to go close to him, used to give him food by trowing on floor. This was really touchy for him.

One night both Tomy and Koonchu came to our house. I brought food from inside. Tomy was standing a bit distance away. I gave the food to Koonchu by giving it in her mouth. On seeing this Tomy also came closer, but since I wanted to keep myself away from him thus I threw the bread on the ground, some distance away. To my surprise he felt really hurt at heart. He did not pick the bread and his eyes were glittering with tears. My sister was also standing close by to me. I then picked the bread and said “Tomy eat it dear”. He was not taking it. I felt that his heart felt bad on the treatment that he is getting on being wounded. We then closed the gate. He was standing close to gate but not taking the bread in his mouth which was kept on floor.

We felt pity that God has made him a Dog, that he cannot speak about his sorrows ans share feelings. He can atmost only stare and cry. His wife Koonchu was also sitting beside him to give him support. Ultimately we used more affectionate words and produced some kissing sounds for him, to this he felt better and took the bread. We also felt happy that at last he accepted the food. But we didn’t know that it was his last night. After giving him the food we went inside. That night was a bit misty and cold. Late at night we heard his cries and also the cries of Koonchu. It was too late for us to go out and check what is happening.

In morning we went and found Tomy lying on ground motionless, with his mouth half open and saliva falling from there. He was not breathing. He was lying in such a position so that his wound was towards the ground. We realized that since he wanted not to be troubled by flies sitting on his wound thus he slept with his wound facing the earth. But the ants and bugs from the wet ground started eating his wound, and thus he died after facing the unbearable pain. His wife Koonchu was sitting near to him, with his head lying on ground. She was looking very sad, and her eyes were speaking about what she lost.

To be Continued ….

A Dog’s Life, Chapter 2

This is in continuation of the story about Tomy and Koonchu, the two street dogs in my colony.

Koonchu has become very close to me and I also had a soft corner for her. We used to have a lot of fun and there are many funny incidents which happened between us.

These dogs are also intelligent creatures and have feelings and emotions. They really understand things very nicely and are also clever. Everyday I used to give Koonchu chapatis (a traditional Indian bread made from wheat flour and water). Since these street dogs are never fed nicely and are never served anything freshly cooked, they always welcome what they get. These chapatis are very simple and tasteless, even we humans don’t eat it directly, we always take it with some spicy vegetable curry or anythings else. But given to dogs or cows, they immediately take it and sometimes pull from your hand. They mix the dry bread with their saliva and enjoy the taste.

I felt a little bad as giving the same thing again and again to her everyday where I enjoy different types of food back on dining table with family. So I decide to also give her some biscuits and crackers along with the bread. This change was very good and she welcomed it with great pleasure. She cannot speak or show any gesture of thankfulness, but I read a feeling of thanks and gratitude in her glittering eyes. That day she sat on our house gate the whole night, with her body pressed against the gate. In morning when I opened the door to come outside and take some fresh air, she on seeing me quickly get up and started waging her tail. This was very sweet. Ofcourse in morning I didn’t had the bread, so I just brought biscuits and crackers for her.

My mom complained, “those things are for us and not for dogs”. I just smiled at her and went outside to give Koonchu Biscuits. On seeing me, she was very excited and started wagging her tail very quickly and I could also notice her watering mouth. Her husband Tomy was also not there at that time, so she can enjoy the good stuff alone.

Thus everyday from then I used to give her not just chapatis but also biscuits and crackers. And yes I can’t be unfair, I used to give these things not just to Koochu but also to Tomy. Now they no more fight and understand the needs of each other nicely. Koonchu get used to this new change. So whenever I used to come with only chapatis, she never used to eat it. I have to persuade her very much in order to make her eat it. I used to put the chapati close to her mouth, infact touching her mouth so that she accept it. She used to turn her head this way and that way, left and right in order to not to eat it. Since they cannot speak and don’t want to show anger, so its a very polite and cute way of saying no. After being fed up of me doing this activity of putting the bread at her mouth, she slowly accept it and take it very softly from my hand but then put it at the ground and started looking at me. Her looks were very expressive, she never used to look at be directly. If I’m standing on her side, she would keep the face straight and every now and then keep turning her eyes to see what I’m doing. I understood what she wanted, so I went in and brought the Biscuits. She was extremely happy that at last she made me understand what she wanted.

Sometimes I used to tease her also. I used to bring both chapatis and biscuits form kitchen, but by the time I approach her at the gate I used to separate the two and hold them in different hands. I then used to offer chapati first, to she how she behaves. She used to smell the chapati all over the surface and in the end used to sniff hard and stand there watching my expressions. Again she would keep the face straight and would look at me by turning her eyes. This was really cute, after few seconds, I would bring in front my second hand in which I was holding the biscuits.

Her eyes would glitter and tail would wage, and with a watery tongue she would take.

To be Continued …

A Dog’s Life, Chapter 1

It was a time when I was a school boy. I was something around 15-16 years old. In India there are lot of street dogs, and they are common. In my colony there were also some street dogs, but of all 2 were most common, rest used to come only some times, but these 2 used to live here only. One of them was male and other was female.

Street dogs are always hungry, no matter at what time you give food they never say no. We used to give them food very often and thus they become are good friends, because others in the colony was not bothered about them and hardly use to treat them with love. We named them Tomy (male) and Koonchu (female). I became very close to the female one. The two used to live like husband and wife. Both used to look for food together and fight together at times of problems. Tomy used to behave like a real Indian husband, suppressing wife, scolding her etc. koonchu was very shy in front of her husband, she never used to fight back . Whenever I used to give food to both of them, Tomy quickly used to finish his own and then comes to snatch the share of Koonchu. She never used to fight back to him.

Koonchu has some skin problems, her skin was having some red spots from where the hairs had disappeared. This gave her a sort of inferiority complex (I’m not very sure about it). People never used to touch her, while in front of her own eyes people show love and affection to Tomy and other dogs. Although she used to get food to eat but among humans she was considered an untouchable. This made me feel sad about her. I felt pity about the way she was being treated by the society and by her own husband Tomy (although many people claim that such notions of husband and wife don’t exists in dogs, but I’m skeptical about it). I thus tried to make Koochu realize her dignity and fight back for her rights. Earlier I was thinking not to interfere in their matter, but after one incident I had to enter the game.

The incident was, one day I gave food to both of them. As usual Tomy finished his food quickly and came to snatch the food of Koochu. I knew that she was also as hungry as Tomy may be even more. This time she growled at Tomy. This made Tomy angry a bit and they entered a small quarrel where both of them barking but in end Tomy won and she surrendered. The scene was she was lying on ground on her back while Tomy was on her with one paw of his put at her throat. This was really a hardcore suppression. I had to enter the scene in order to separate the two. Since then whenever I used to give them food, I used to stand by Koochu side so that Tomy cannot come to snatch her food. This also made Koochu to learn to fight for her share, as form then she used to fight equally with him.

Even though they used to fight at the time of food, there was love between them. Again many people say that such things are not there in dogs, well I’m skeptical about it.

Tomy was a rowdy dog, used to fight with many other dogs from other regions. he used to visit other ares and there fight with other dogs and get scratches and bruises here and there. When he used to come back and meet Koochu, she used to lick at the cuts and in end lick his mouth. I felt that it was their way of expressing love and emotions.

In order to express my love, I used to put my hand on their back. Dogs love this when someone moves their hand on their hairy back. I used to do this with Tomy but not with Koochu as she has some skin problems of which I was unaware. But I noticed that she feel hurt about it. So when I touched her for the first time on her head using a small piece of wood, she closed her eyes and felt very good. After that she became very close to me.

To be continued ….