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The Old Man and the Dog

April 23, 2019 | By

Life can be pretty mundane and lacklustre, but the power of love can work wonders. In this Morning Meandering, Santosh Bakaya tells us how canine affection brings a complete metamorphosis in a shabby old man. Love, in any form, has great magical powers.

Morning Meanderings is a popular musings column by Dr Santosh Bakaya. Enjoy her jottings with a hot cup of tea. 🙂

There was a shrill whistling call outside my window. Ah, the Kingfisher!

It seemed to be desperately waking up the comatose sun. The watch showed 6.30, but through my window I could see it was cloudy. Pulling up my sneakers and hastily brushing my teeth, I ran out to be greeted by a fragrance of rain on parched earth! What an invigorating smell!  How rejuvenating to find the raindrops having rambunctious, rip roaring fun.

On the telephone wire sat a beautiful male kingfisher, its long black, dagger- like bill, opening and closing, emitting that shrill whistle. Disturbed by the mooing of cows, the barking of dogs, and the cawing of crows, it flew away, its bright blue tail bobbing up and down.  I watched on, as its flamboyant plumage merged with the grey clouds, which were all gearing up to burst into rain songs.

Suddenly an old, wizened man, I had never seen before, appeared on the scene, and a couple of mangy looking dogs started barking at him. From somewhere, the shrill squeaks of another bird, I could not identify, fell into my ears.

The man had a ginger brown, wispy beard, which he kept stroking thoughtfully.

“Namaste,” I greeted him.
“Namaste”, he wheezed, looking absolutely lost.

Morning Meanderings

Morning Meanderings by Dr Santosh Bakaya

I noticed that his frayed trousers were tucked into a pair of tattered shoes. He kept hitching up his trousers which were held up by a colourful necktie that had seen better days.  One mangy dog suddenly seemed to take a fancy to him, and plodding up to him, started sniffing him.

The next moment it had flung itself at him with a canine affection, which, so far, had been absolutely invisible.

Taken aback, the man cowered in fright initially, but, a few minutes later, before my very eyes, I saw a total metamorphosis in him.  His lacklustre eyes started sparkling, and a certain vibrancy seemed to creep into his frail figure.

“Some months back, I had befriended a pup, then I lost him, I thought he had died, but he is very much alive, and has found me.” He said, looking at me.
“Tu Bhoora hi hai na?”[You are Bhoora, aren’t you?”] He said, bending down to stroke him with one gnarled hand.

At these words, Bhoora, [for it was really Bhoora, now a year older!], flung himself at the man and started showering him with redoubled affection.
Seeing this endearing scene, a koel, hidden in a tree, burst into song, the kingfisher reappeared and took to whistling again, and the raindrops cascaded down in bursts of liquid joy.

With a bright smile I headed home, glancing back to find the man and dog walking towards some unknown destination.

Nay, they had found homes in each other’s hearts, and both had a spring in their walk, which was not there earlier.

Watch this space for more Morning Meanderings every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 🙂

Read More in Morning Meanderings

Click to read all Morning Meanderings here.

Thunder, Lightning and Rain

Our Daily Bread

When Cookies Just Crumbled in the Mouth

Dr Santosh Bakaya is the author of three mystery novels for young adults, and a book of essays titled Flights From My Terrace, which was recently published as an e-book on Smashwords. Her poetic biography of Mahatma Gandhi, Ballad Of Bapu has been published by Vitasta Publishers, Delhi, India in May 2015 and has been receiving rave reviews from everywhere. Although a Political theorist, with a doctorate in political theory, it is literature which has been her first love. She was awarded the Reuel international award for language and literature 2014 for her long poem Oh Hark!, which forms part of the Significant Anthology. Many of her poems have figured in the highly commended category in Destiny Poets, a UK based website and many are part of international anthologies. Right now, she is giving the final touches to her satirical novel, tentatively titled Sanakpur Shenanigans.
All Posts of Santosh Bakaya

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4 thoughts on “The Old Man and the Dog

  • Monalisa Joshi

    Ahaa…such a sweet and heartwarming story. Yes it’s very true canines can be the best of pals of humans. No wonder their love is so pure and you have shown the same through your story. Loved reading it.

  • Joseph S. Spence, Sr.

    This is just an awesome piece. I love the intensity of the story as it moves along. I like the illustration as a story line, develops, moves uphill to a climax, then back down to normalcy. It became very interesting at that point. Visualizing the man and the dog as great buddies probably skipping along on their way to their destination after the bout is inspiring. Blessings!

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