Be My Friend!

The weather in the city had been considerate towards this foreigner, who had come to have a first-hand experience of the country. The mercury soared from -10 to 0, making some allowance for me to venture into the street, to witness the snow-capped vehicles, trees and terraces. It was a beautiful sight for the eyes, but I would not think it was the same to the residents. Yesterday one of my senior friends confided that the temperature we had been experiencing in the past few days was the lowest in the last 10 years. While we hoped that the temperature may come to a normal state, allowing normal works and life to resume. It was cold, and going out in such cold weather was not something that one might enjoy; everyone rather would like to stay indoors. But there are some who have no other alternative; whether it is rain or shine, snow or dry, they have to get down to the streets. I look at them with so much of kindness, and feel they too make life worth living for quite a few.

Looking through the glass window of my room onto the road, often I see people on the road; most of the time, people walk alone. Seldom have I come across people going in a group. Sometimes there are parents with two or three of their children. Today I saw three children throwing snow at one another, while their mother coolly walking ahead of them. But often I see people who walking alone had a minor companion: puppies. While the men or women who take them alone are well-protected from the cool wind and the nail-biting cold, these creatures have nothing to complain. Rather they have neither the voice nor the audacity to complain. They have no choice to choose from, whether to accompany their masters or mistresses, or to remain indoors. They have not been taught the art of saying no gracefully, and so according to the whims and fancies of their guardians, they have to accompany them wherever they go. I would not say that these tiny creatures are often ill-treated by their custodians, but they have absolutely no freedom to be all by themselves. Many of them receive royal treatment at home, and sometimes are the centre of attraction in the family. But they are there always at the disposal of their guardians.

I really wonder what these puppies would tell their guardians were they given the gift of human speech; would they protest or joyfully go wherever their guardians take them? It is hard for us to imagine what they would feel, though sometimes it is possible to make out how they react from their movements, but that is not the case always. I have heard of cinestars having specially bred and brought-up puppies as their pets, and they would shower all their love and concern for these puppies, sometimes going to the extent of spending a large per cent of their earning towards them. I have also heard of some rich ladies, who organized to have a decent (and expensive) burial for her pet, spending a huge part of her fortune. At the other side of the spectrum, we have people who would pay undue importance to their pet animals rather than the human persons they live with. I would not like to say that the pet animals should not be given love and care, but can showering more love and care to these pets rather than the persons we live with be ever justified? Here is something for us to think about!

Granted that I am not so much in favor of having a pet for me, I know that these pets can be truly sources of comfort and solace, especially when the human spirit dips. When human relations break, when the pendulum of fortune swings, when expectations do not materialize, when hopes crumble like a pack of cards, when the trusted ones betray, when family ties snap, these pets may stand by. They may offer or we may find a shoulder (if we think they have one) to lean on and shed tears! They may not share our suffering and pain, but they may stay with us, without wishing to run away. That is something beautiful about these pets, and that is something we can be grateful to them. But at the same time, we also need to think of them as independent creatures, having the same kind of freedom and independence that I desire for. Within the narrow limits of my existence and life at large, can I find ways of allowing these pets to live a life of their own? Can we allow a human person to take the place of these pets, so that we may experience greater intimacy and concern exchanged between?

Today I would like to pause for a while to think of all the pets that we grow with and love and care; they may have different names, shapes and forms, and they may receive different kinds of treat from their masters and mistresses. I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to them, for their share of moral responsibility, and lightening up our burdens, when we are drowned needlessly by the cares of daily life. I would like to think of them, not so much as objects for me to use at my own whims and fancies, but to consider them as creatures with their own freedom and independence to be as they wish, without any external control imposed on them. We too may have a lot to learn from them, in submitting ourselves entirely at the hands of the one who leads our lives. Maybe it is then that we may realize a different kind of freedom that takes us to a different realm, far from the human. (Brussels)