Bhau!

Bhau! Bhau!

This is how I speak. However, I am able to think in the human language.

When I used to live near the Koramangala Depot, there was this cigarette selling street shop. He used to have some black coloured radio on and the folks on it used to speak really good english. That is where I started understanding it. Looking at how people reacted, and what they were talking about, I tried to piece a few things together and within a few months, I caught up on a fairly tangible version of the humanspeak.

My mother used to say that I was born really bright, the doctor who delivered me said I was really cute and they hadn’t seen a more handsome dog than me at the time of birth. My mother used to often speak about those days, when she was pregnant and hung around the Garuda mall. Those places were really cool for food. All those fancy restaurants used to throw their leftovers to the street dogs late in the night. She used to eat pretty late, mostly after all the guests would leave the place. But it was worth it. Sometimes, she could get some chicken pieces, but mostly it was left over veggies and stale bread. If you were into it, you could go to some garbage bins in the dark alleys and get some protein from the egg shells, but they stank big time. My mother was not very fond of them, but her friend had suggested to her that it was good for the kid (that’s me) to have some raw protein.

One night, she was looking at a few folks coming out of a beer place and she tried to cross the road to meet a few other dogs on the other side. They had found some left over food just taken out by a nearby restaurant. While she was crossing, she didn’t notice a car coming her way. The driver must have been drunk. He hit her pretty good, but she survived. Her leg got broken and she was terrified. The car didn’t even notice hitting her. But a few girls who were smoking a cig on the roadside noticed and they came rushing over, saw that she was pregnant and immediately called up someone. In about 15 minutes, a van came and picked her up, tossed her in the van and drove away. She was in pain, but humans didn’t notice her tears. Once they reached the hospital, she was given some drugs and her leg was plastered. She gave birth to me a few weeks later.

She had a limp in her leg till her death, but she had high spirits. She ran with me around the hospital, teaching me how to eat from the ground, she taught me how to smile. She told me she had no idea who my father was, but she had some candidates. Obviously, there was no chance of me ever meeting him. We all are just one hypersexual species, perhaps that also saves us from the complicated constructs of family and allows us to care more about each other as a community.

Some days later my mother died, I was 6 months old back then. I had never left the hospital till then since the doctor there was very fond of me and his daughter liked to play with me a lot. I spent most of my time playing with her, fetching her ball. She was 2 years old. They used my mother for creating more pups like me, but she died midway her pregnancy due to influenza (or whatever cold is called in dogs). After she left, I sort of decided that this 2 years old child was my mother as she used to hug me a lot and as she grew older, she took the charge of being the leader in our partnership. I liked playing around with her and once my mother died, they allowed me to sleep with her in her room.

The hospital had a big lawn, its board has a big cross sign on it. Large green trucks used to move in and out and I was sometimes afraid that one of them would run over me. Later on, when I understood humanspeak, I realised it was a military hospital and it wasn’t technically an animal hospital. One day, I saw my new mother and her mother leave that place with their bags packed. They slid all their bags in the car and drove away. She didn’t even say goodbye. I had no one then. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t know how to. I felt lost and I had no words to ask her to not go or tell anyone how I felt. The room she used to sleep in was locked and I had to sleep in the lawn from then on. I was afraid. I could see some dogs outside the hospital perimeter, barking in the night, talking to each other about the cars moving around and how much they liked the bitch they humped last night. Incidentally, all those night dogs were males. I guess patriarchy runs in all of us.

This went on for a few days. Luckily it wasn’t raining those days. I used to get food from the hospital staff sometimes and sometimes I would just sleep hungry or chew on piece of food dropped by humans, but they never provided shelter. With more and more time spent outside the four walls, my skin had become dirty and I stank like the grass and the soil. I used to excrete in the lawn, so no one noticed, but I knew one day I won’t be welcomed here anymore. One fine evening, I saw a human kid, maybe 8-9 years old, coming towards me and offering me some biscuits. I really enjoyed them and seeing my enthusiasm, he left the entire packet with me. He was really kind. With the coming days, he started visiting more often and gave me biscuits and chips on several occasions.

One day, he teased me with his biscuits and I was hungry, so I followed him. Let me tell you, I was a stupid dog, I had little idea that my safety was more important than food. I followed him slowly, jumping like a happy dog, looking for a simple treat. I didn’t realise I had moved out of the hospital perimeter and was walking behind him on the pavement. After his biscuits were done for, he crossed the road with jumpy strides as the traffic light was just about to turn green. I didn’t realise that would cause all the cars to start moving. I was scared, and I just stood there. I kept looking at that kid, who was on the other side and started moving further and further away. I was hoping that the cars would stop and then I can go and meet that kid again. But the cars didn’t stop and slowly my window was narrowing for running and meeting him. He was about to turn a corner after which I would no longer be able to see him and when he took that turn, some piece of glass fell inside me and shattered. At that moment it dawned on me that I had no idea where I had come from and I didn’t know where I had to go. I had some vague idea of where the hospital would be, but as I kept walking and as the sunset came to a close, I realised I was lost. I was a street dog now.