Yesterday was one of those days. One of those days where my views about humans and religion became further entrenched.
I woke up to the horrific news of some Delhi goons brutally striking a mama dog. The clip was disturbing. My eyes couldn’t hold back the tears. All I could think about was the motivation people have to actually go through with such horrendous crimes against nature. And this wasn’t some isolated, unintentional act; these men had made a conscious effort to cause harm to the poor creature. I looked the guy up and was even more shocked to find that he came from an educated working-class background. It was unbelievable, for a moment I thought this was a scene from a Tamil movie. Only that it wasn’t. The one-minute short clip had me crying profusely. What prompted such evil to the surface? No one will ever know.
It took a while for this to sink in. I perhaps even experienced an anxiety attack. Now, every time I get stressed I either begin to clean the house or go stand under the shower as a way of dealing with the panic symptoms I experience. Since I am in a hostel room, the former wasn’t really possible. So it had to be the latter. I undressed and just as I was about to turn the shower knob, I heard a terrifying whine and continual barking. I looked outside the window and I could see something wasn’t right. I put my Tshirt and shorts back on; I didn’t even have time for the bra. I just rushed down the stairs and out on the road. And there it was…just as you think it cannot get worse…
There lay in a pool of blood Pluto, one of the pups from the family of dogs I have been feeding and playing with every day since I moved to the hostel. I gave out a yelp! I saw another pup, who I had named Daisy (previously nicknamed Tom as I thought it was male) suffering in pain. She definitely had injured her hind legs. Now I was screaming and crying. I was in a panic mode. Some neighbours stepped out perhaps because of my screaming. I feel on my knees and tried to revive Pluto, the mom barking and trying with me too. But I knew it was futile. I looked around and there she was the murderer in her grey car just watching me. And then she drove off. I ran after her. She hadn’t gone too far along. She stopped outside a temple and she went in to pray. I waited for her, still all in panic mode. I requested some girls from the neighbouring building who followed me to contact the police.
I confronted her. She showed very little remorse. Does it help that her mother later brought out a bowl of milk for the mother of the pups?
I am not sure what I was mad about. Was it the fact that she had run over 2 puppies, one of which had died on the spot and the other one needing urgent medical attention, or was it the fact that she went straight to a temple after “accidentally” running over the pups?
“Who does that?” I kept asking her!! I felt like a madwoman. I told her she had to help me get Daisy to a vet. She didn’t pay heed.
She got into her car and drove back to her home, went straight in, and didn’t bother coming out. The accident happened right outside the gate of her house.
The mama dog who I had nicknamed Minnie, was furious and now wouldn’t let me get close to her pups. She was mad, and rightly so. I tried to stop a policeman who was passing by and he did nothing.
Fortunately, in this unfortunate incident, I had access to the Executive Director of FIAPO who also lives in Jaipur and I dialled her. I was shaken. She sent help and the pups were taken to the animal hospital thanks to Raksha Foundation. The whole time I just prayed that Daisy would make it. I could see her mom was in pain too because she had just lost a pup. Yesterday broke a part of me that probably can’t ever be fixed.
