The dangers of a dog
She looked at him with loving brown eyes, he had come up to the terrace after so long. She ran towards him in delight but halted when she saw him shriek at the sight of her. He scared her now with his shrill yell, his arms flailing about as he ran. She barked out of fear. And he ran faster.
This is the story of my dog Dolly whenever she tries to be friends with kids. She sees a friend in them and they see a monster in her. This incident triggered a much-heated debate on our apartment’s WhatsApp group, the landmine of modern civilisation. The mother of the boy Mrs.Y said she felt cheated because she was promised this was an apartment without dogs. She pulled out emails from the past and sought justice.
When someone probed Mrs.Y on who made the promise, she mentioned the name of an old gentleman, who had passed away a while back. The nature of this promise was uncertain since the man in question was not on WhatsApp
The WhatsApp groups of resident associations are battlegrounds, a war of words is waged at every possible instance, and there are always wounds from the previous battles that people seldom forget. There is one lady Mrs.X who has a penchant for fights. She pointed out how some owners had not adhered to the meeting minutes from three years ago which mentioned that no pets would be allowed. While someone pointed out that there were no dogs back then, she said it did not matter and the minutes of meetings had to be adhered to.
While the war was raging on, I researched and found out that in India housing societies could not legally impose a ban on pets, even if the majority were in favour. Societies often have rules that violate constitutional rights. They are headed by people who want to wield power over indifferent strangers. Maybe these people had tall ambitions when they were young, but were thwarted by the real world, they are eternally looking for vengeance.
From whom and for what are insignificant questions.
The fight took a different turn when Mrs X mentioned strays were also found to be entering the apartment. WHAT’S NEXT, she asked, the caps indicating her exasperation with the lot of us
It was tempting to mention that stray dogs were usually unaware of internal society politics and had a life of their own. But I knew riling Mrs.X would make the life of the strays difficult. My dog with one bark was now threatening the strays who came into my building when the heat was intense or it rained heavily.
While kids could be kids, in our society dogs could not be dogs, they could be cats, they could be pigeons, but their dog-like behaviour was offensive to those of a delicate temperament.
I apologised for Dolly’s behaviour and pretended to be a shameful parent, I mentioned that my dog would always be on a leash even at home, so that people in my society feel safe. This did not generate any response from Mrs Y.
She seemed to be miffed that the dog was co-existing in the same building as her precious child and I could smell a plot to get us thrown out. As all this drama was unfolding Dolly slept peacefully, unaware of the trivialities of the human world.
Her serene expression made me realise that humans are mere mortals compared to dogs.
