Everyone craves for power. You may not accept but in the deepest caverns of the heart resides the intuitive desire to direct and regulate others’ lives and destiny.
The same propensity in me came to the fore when I adopted a dog. I felt elated but there was also a sense of responsibility for I was his master and controlled his life. He slowly became one with the family. I fed him, took him for walks and sometimes bathed him. That was all I had to do for him. He was least demanding and always looked happy.
He justified his presence by catching and killing house rats. One day he also saved me from a mad dog that unprovokedly pounced on me. Had he not been there, I surely would have had to get countless injections drilled down my tummy. He acted as a guard and no one had the courage to enter the house without invitation. Moreover, just seeing him run or play with the ball gave me immense pleasure.
Time rolled by. Slackness set in. By now I had taken it for granted that he was mine and would serve me, come what may. I would now many a times not bring his dogfood, intentionally, and instead utilize the allotted money on my own self. I would now give him bread crumbs or a couple of chapattis instead. But he never complained. A little caressing and lovingly enchantment of his name a couple of times was enough to spur him up. He would be immediately alert and prepared to lay his life in my service.
More water flowed under the bridge. My ways became worse and I turned even more complacent. The dog became weak but his faithfulness was intact. He would now go hungry for many days but all he did was whine once in a while. This was never enough to penetrate my conscience or even unwillingly force me to look after him .I had perhaps forgotten that dogs could bite.
One morning I found him unusually quiet. His nose was dry. I immediately understood that he was ill. He kept staring at me with those bulging eyes of his, but did not move. However his tail wagged which was indication enough that the faithfulness had still not gone. The thought of doctor’s fees and medicine bill turned me off. I could instead use the money on myself and my friends. Without giving him a second look I left the house.
When I returned I found him lying outside, near the gate, in supine position. He was dead. I did not feel bad because he was just a dog, a faithful servant. And moreover dogs have miserable deaths. He died an easy one. I had now to get rid of the body. Someone suggested having him buried near the river. But that would involve carrying the stinking mass in the car and paying for the digging and subsequent filling of the soil. I came up with a better idea instead. I phoned the Municipality and told them that an orphan dog had unfortunately died in front of my house and that they have him removed at the earliest. That was the end of him.
I felt sure that I could adopt any pup and elicit out the same faithfulness and servitude from him, without even having to care for him because it was engraved in their systems to serve without complaining.
What had the dog demanded? Nothing. And what had he given in return? Everything he possibly could. His faithfulness was abused. He was exploited to the brim.
The problem lay in the fact that he did not or could not complain. I sometimes wonder what his fate would have been, could he speak. If he only could resent, I would never have been allowed to get so complacent. Had he known that I owed him proper food my actions towards him would have been dramatically different. Had there been fear that he would lose his faithfulness, or leave me or bite me given my behavior, I surely would have been on my toes and then the relation between us would have been of reciprocity. In fact I owed him a lot more than just feeding him given he had once saved me from a dog, provided safety to the whole house and always produced happiness by his very presence. But due to the lack of ability to understand that he was being exploited and stand up for his cause was he a dog.
But we are born humans with the sharpest intellect among all animals. It is beyond reason why we are relegating ourselves by not protesting against injustice meted out to us. Our political masters, exploit our emotions, trust and faithfulness, and when the question for fulfilling our needs arises, they turn a blind eye as if we don’t exist. They know that we can at the most whine but never growl, forget about biting. We are as much responsible for the current scenario as they are. We get satiated by ‘bread crumbs’ or a little caressing. It’s time we showed our canines and growled, and if need be even bite, but at any cost made our importance felt.
If we don’t act now, we will die a silent death, like the faithful dog, without the surety of getting even a proper cremation.
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