Life and Life-skills

One way or the other, Life is cruel to everyone.

Few days back we had a happy dog family in our locality; a Mommy, a Daddy and 6 pretty puppies. I would notice them every evening during my post-iftar walk and it has been an absolute pleasure to watch them cuddle each other and play in each other’s embrace. I would, every day, walk with a smile on my face as I would see them dance around each other and display their love fearlessly. They made my last few evenings delightful. All of them would wag their tails fervently as the residents of the locality passed by and they would bark ferociously at the foreigners too; their kind as well as ours. I must confess that the barking sessions of parents did make me panic once or twice and I might have cursed them for making me feel uneasy. May be, I shouldn’t have.

Yesterday, a car ran over the only black pup of the litter and as I stepped out for my routine walk in the evening, it was heart breaking to see them all circle around the dead body. The parents and the siblings kept sniffing around him for a while and then the ache began. As I walked a few rounds, there was no tail wagging, no dancing and no cuddling. Their world had fallen apart and I was surprised to observe, how effectively all of them felt their loss. We tend to undervalue the emotional capabilities of other mortals and we are so wrong in doing that.

The body has been disposed of by the municipality people but as I stepped out today, I had my heart in pieces. I couldn’t walk a single step as I saw the mother seated where the body of the black pup was last night and her 5 little children constantly rubbing against her body. For the time I was there, she would recurrently look up dejected but she refuses to move. She is still as if dead and the little ones seem to be confused about how to comfort their mommy.

One of her babies is dead and the others lost!

With a bucket load of emotions inside of me, I was watching all of them grieve and some foreign dogs started to bark from the other side of the locality. Up on their feet, knowing that their guardian was distressed and thus mourning, all the 5 puppies started to retaliate in their not-so-adult tone. Afraid, petrified may be, but defiant. Lord! My heart or what! I wanted to cuddle them all for this incredible show and for taking care of their territory with such significant strength amid all the grief. I got my heart back and then lost it to the little warriors. Quite timid in its tone but with their first cry they have definitely marked their territory for life. I left the spot delighted.


Life can be cruel but under its murky shadows is embedded a lesson, a life-skill. Always. 

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