Wagon Load of Love

Night had fallen early in a small railway township in the south eastern part of the country. There was an eerie silence as the roads were all empty. There was not a soul out on the streets as all the frightened, mask-wearing men were cloistered within the confines of their homes. Not all… the main door of a guest house opened and two strange men walked out. One was a portly, short, middle-aged man, with a long staff in hand, who walked ahead, followed by a slim, young man holding something in his hands, a few steps behind. The two walked for some time and arrived at a place where a few skinny dogs with their skeletons almost exposed and eyes drooping as if crying for help…crying for morsels of food, which during those times of the pandemic, had suddenly vanished. The residents, who used to throw out their garbage for the dogs to forage through, and some good Samaritans who fed them biscuits from time to time, had all gone missing.

Kamal…inko roti de do…said the man with the staff and his orderly quickly obeyed by giving the hungry dogs chapatis from the casserole he was holding in his hands. The two men stood as the dogs quickly ate their meal that and then looked up at their saviors with their tails wagging. The dogs would come closer and a gentle rubbing of the palm and a little tickle on the back is what they got from the two men as they moved ahead. They went to a couple of more drop points and made sure the stray dogs in the colony got one good meal.

This activity of making about twenty-five fresh chappatis each night and feeding the strays in the colony became a routine activity for the two men for almost four months. For the dogs this was, possibly, the only meal they were getting during the entire day and they, too, would wait at their regular places at the same time every night. Slowly, as the pandemic waned, other people too started coming out of their homes and helped in feeding the dogs some more food. However, for the dogs, the two night walkers were their best friends. The portly benefactor also arranged for all the street dogs in the colony to be vaccinated.

The two men had started naming every dog in their own way depending upon their unique behavior, look and size. The dogs also started to understand and respond when called by their names. One such dog was Chulbuli or one who is full of spirit and energy. She had lost all the pups of her first litter during the Covid times. She was now carrying once again and Kamal took special care of her by giving her extra food each night. Finally, the big day arrived and Chulbuli gave birth to four pups, all of whom looked healthy. Funnily, the mother had a brown coat all over and the pups were all black…almost.

By now the two men had moved from the guest house into the duplex bungalow allotted to the  gentleman who happened to be a very senior railway official and the other was his Man Friday. Soon, they were joined by the son of the Railway Man who took a fancy for Chulbuli’s pups. The son convinced his father to bring home one of the pups. The three men now gathered with the pup in the centre to perform the naming ceremony. Seeing that the little dog with shiny, black coat all over except his front paws and a little bit of the fore legs which were white as if he had on a pair of socks. They all agreed to rightfully call the pup ‘Moja’ or ‘Socks’.

Moja

Moja was now the most loved person in the house and was being pampered by the son. The pup would eat, sleep and bathe with the young man most of the time but was allowed to go out of the bungalow to meet his mother and other family members whenever he wished to. Moja’s dual family members, both inside and outside the bungalow, never bothered with his absence since they knew for certain that he was with his other family and was well taken care of. Moja soon turned into a handsome dog who would walk with a confident gait and moved around the colony as the master of all he surveyed.

The Railway Man and his Man Friday would still go out on their post-dinner long, evening walks and loved meeting the street dogs who would come to them and at times follow them around. One evening, they found a lone, sick looking dog near the park. As they went close to the dog, the creature started shivering as if fearing the usual wrath of humans that he was so used to. The dog, who seemed unfed for days, had cut marks on its body and blood was tickling down his left ear. The two men reached out to the poor creature and brought him to their home. On proper examination, they realized that this was a Doberman pup but it appeared that his ear cropping operation had all gone wrong. The dog’s owners threw him out of their house expecting him to die. After all, there was no way they could keep an imperfect Doberman which otherwise would have been their trophy to show-off to the world.

The two men tended to the injured dog who slowly came back to normalcy. The injury to the ear healed and he was allowed to live with his imperfection, yet was loved more than those who might have paid a handsome amount to buy him as one from famous lineage and exotic kennel. Surprisingly, this Doberman is one of a kind and is not aggressive at all to the humans who caused him so much pain. He craves only for love. Possibly, the stains of his abusive childhood would have had its impact on his docile character now. The dog soon became an integral part of the Railway Man’s house and was named Arpa after a river that flowed past the town they lived in.

Arpa

There were now two dogs who lived in the same bungalow but they gradually started marking their territories. If Arpa would bask in the sun lying close to the front gate, Moja found his place of comfort at the backyard of the house where the fruit trees grew. Neither transgressed into the other’s territory. Once outside in the open fields, they played happily together chasing birds and one another. The dogs were never put on leash and yet, if you were a visitor to this house, you would never hear a growl or a bark. The two dogs just wanted to be loved. They would at times get jealous if one of them was being given more attention and made sure that he got an equal share.

Playing Together

The Railway Man’s son went back to his world but the house found a new lease of life when the Man Friday’s little son came to join his father, along with his mother, in the annexe of the bungalow. The little boy had no fear of the two dogs in the house. He would often play with them and on some occasions even take a stick in his hand and gently tap them on the heads and say something to them, exactly in the same way that his father would do with him whenever he was naughty. If Kamal ever tried showing off his training skills by asking the dogs to shake hands which they would comply with without fail. Unfortunately, not understanding the toddler’s gibberish, they turned a deaf ear when the little boy asked them to do the same….Moja, chake hans! The undaunted kid would then sit down on the floor, hold one of front legs of the dog and pull it up, forcing it to do the handshake and then give a big smile of success. The dogs knew the baby well and were always protective of him and never showed any irritation or anger.

The Railway Man is due to superannuate in some months. Someone asked him what would happen to the two dogs post his retirement because maintaining them in a high-rise flat, where he would soon shift, would not be easy. He just smiled and said, I will take Arpa to my house in the hills and Kamal will take Moja to his new house at his new place of posting.

I know of many people who love their pets but found this pure love for animals, especially for those that are stray, sick and abandoned, exceptional. Wondered if Yudhishthir, the eldest Pandava, was kept out of Gates of Heaven when he tried entering with one black dog, whether the toll gates will open nice and smooth just like they do for KYC approved Fastag vehicles whenever these two souls arrive with their two black dogs in tow.

SS