25 MARCH, 2020
KARO-NA! A Dog’s Life
On Tuesday evening, March 24, the Indian Prime Minister announced a three-week lockdown, which means only essential services would be available and we all need to stay at home. The very thought of staying locked at home for three weeks is psychologically unsettling. I do appreciate that experts have advised social distancing, and recent experiences have shown positive results of lockdown. However, I have been sitting at home for the past week and now this dictat is completely shattering. My parents are trying to put some rationality to this crazy situation and have advised me to start enjoying mundane things around us. My generation doesn’t understand the art of doing nothing. My friends with whom I chat most of the time, are equally distraught with the idea of another 21 days. I think by the end of this period we will all be zombie-like.
Our country celebrated the “Janta Curfew” last Sunday and as advised by the prime minister we all joined together to show our gratitude to people working for us in these difficult times. Nobody would have imagined that a one-day celebratory curfew was a precursor to the coming three-week lockdown.
On a positive note, in the last one week I have started observing things, which were of no consequence to my life earlier. The colour of the sky, stars at night, pleasant weather in the month of March, and most surprisingly a six month old Labrador next door. I did notice this dog earlier while going to school in the mornings, however I had never thought about it beyond that. On Sunday evening, while standing in the balcony I noticed this pup lying beneath the chair of this guard standing outside our neighbour’s house. This golden colour lab is strong, muscular, and has sharp teeth. It was looking depressed, jaded, and was chewing newspaper. I enquired with my brother, who loves dogs and is struggling to convince my mother to get one. He informed me that this lab is called Roxy and is owned by the guard who sits all the time in the wooden box outside the house. Most of the times the dog stays chained in the wooden box and is fed out of the guard’s meals. Being a dog connoisseur, my brother mentioned that labradors are family dogs and they need love and affection with timely exercise and physical activities. Since Roxy has zero social interaction, she is depressed and sad. My landlady Shama aunty and her daughter Dhvani love dogs. I talked to them about Roxy. Dhvani went to the guard and asked him why Roxy is chained all the time. He stated that while on duty he is not supposed to take the dog for a walk and there is no one to take care of Roxy if he unleashes her. My brother and Dhvani decided that they will take responsibility for walking the dog and playing with it during the lockdown period. Since there is complete lockdown, our other neighbours also started walking their dogs themselves. I specifically liked a pair called Troy and Cold. Troy is a one year old lab and Cold is an eight month old Terrier. Roxy, seeing Troy and Cold, got excited and started jumping. My brother unleashed her and she started licking her feet and started jumping over the two other dogs. She was happy and full of energy. This activity has been going on for the last four days and I have been witnessing it and enjoying it as well.
Now, I can differentiate between a dog’s happy bark and sad bark and can find out what a dog is looking for. I am generally scared of animals but thanks to my brother and Dhvani,I started finding dogs cute and friendly. I hope I can get one for my brother some day.