A canine tale of woe
THEY would look at anyone passing by a modest house near a newly set up home for the aged. They would follow such people for a few seconds and then turn away forlorn and disappointed. This happened with me, too, when I went there the other day, especially for observing the behaviour of the canines. They came to me wagging their tails, displaying their love and affection for me. But soon, they left me alone, perhaps realising that I was not their master, though they would often see me with the man who touched them affectionately every time they would meet him, besides feeding them properly almost every day.
These three dogs probably wished to join their master in the New Year celebrations. And for them, the New Year would mean getting the choicest things to eat. What else could they hope for? It is food for which they wander throughout the day.
Their master, my friend, is no longer in the city where we live. He has migrated to a distant land, the proverbial ‘saat samundar paar’ (beyond seven seas) — Canada. But these canines perhaps feel that he might have disappeared from their midst only for a short while owing to some pressing problem. This had been the practice with my friend, who would sometimes visit his hometown in UP’s Balia district or Varanasi to meet his relatives when he was living in India. Now, the canines would have to wait for years to have a darshan of their master as he cannot afford to visit Delhi frequently. But these four-legged creatures have no idea about this development.
There was a time when they would accompany him till at least half a kilometre every morning when he would come out of his house to go to the area’s biggest mosque for the morning prayers. Even now, they look for him mostly in the morning, but in vain. The other day, I saw them running after a white car in which they noticed a dog sitting with its body covered with a small but thick blanket. The driver, perhaps a dog lover, stopped for a while to observe the reaction of this canine family. The grieving dogs came near the car, gave an envious look to the lucky member of their tribe, perhaps thinking that the man at the wheel was their master. Soon, the car sped away and the depressed family came back to the house of its master.
I followed them to know what they would do next. All three kept their faces up and then began to weep copiously. Their tears were expressing their emotions on getting separated from their loving caretaker. It was a cloudy day and one could sense that they were beseeching the clouds to take their tears to the new home of their master. They perhaps thought that only then would their master realise the intensity of their sadness.
It is not without reason that dogs are known the world over as the most faithful creatures, always ready to sacrifice even their life for their master.
