August 3, 2005

Bow Wow

August 03, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
No, that's not me barking.. It's just the barking of the stray dogs which is still reverberating in my ears. Boy I had a close shave. Talk about going home late at nights when stray dogs are at their menacing best(WORST !!). My brother would always warn me about the stray dogs in Bangalore, and how menacing they are. They run behind anything they find, be it a motorcyclist or a .. err.. running human ! But hey, cmon, I was passing by harmlessly mate ! I just crossed the road, being the ever confident guy who doesn't care about stray dogs and what havoc they can create.
And whom do I come across ? 2 stray dogs, and this was not even late night, it was just 9:00 pm. I always carry may bag to office, albeit there is nothing new or old which I add or retain in it. But, man, did it come handy yesterday ?

It was a war, between my bag and the dogs. They kept snarling at me, there sharp teeth ready to rip me apart. Couldn't take a close look to see how white the teeth were and decide which toothpaste they might be using. But it was 30 seconds of fight on the middle of the road. Two dogs and me. Boy did I go stone cold. I really got scared, but I took the bag off my shoulder and kept shoving away the dogs. Though the people passing by on the road were watching all this, they dare not help me, lest they should get chased down by these beasts. 30 seconds, and I realised, how bad it could be to get bitten by these dogs. Watching me trying to fight away the 2 dogs , another one joined the gang. A chain of thoughts crossed my head, from the 14 injections I might have to take if I were to be bitten, to the very fact that they would actually bite me. Action packed thriller it was .

Being stray they were bound to stray, and they like to just chase down anything, and found a motorcyclist .. who screamed past. They were not done with me yet. Another vehicle passed by and somehow the doggies got distracted. I took advantage of the opportunity and , well, not surprisingly, crossed back to the other side of the road. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to brave walking on the same side after that incident.

I really don't understand, why there are stray dogs at all ? Ok, they want to sprint on the road. But do they have to bite people ? My friend got bitten, even as he was driving his vehicle. There have been instances of accidents having taken place, whilst trying to avoid these dogs.And these accidents have been fatal too.What were they trying to achieve by threatening me ? Ok, I got my pants stitched bad, and half an inch short, as a result of which, the socks were visible. But there was no bare skin that they could have smelt right ? Don't tell me they liked the smell of my socks !!

But, really stray dogs are a big menace in India, especially, from what I have seen, atleast in Chennai and Bangalore. I remember having seen teleshow about a girl who gets bitten by such a dog and she gets the dreaded rabies disease. The girl starts to snarl like a dog, and it's really a bad one , that ! This is precisely what went through my mind when the attack was on .. phew !What do these stray dogs want ? Why are they stray ? What is their motive ? I can't understand. Why do they have to chase people ? Why bite them ? Do they even realise they could cause rabies ?

To end it all, on the way back home, only one song struck my mind ...

Jahan bhi jaata hoon wohi chale aate ho
Peeche Peeche dum hilaake tum aate ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum doggie kaun se ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum doggie kaun se ho

Jahan bhi jaata hoon wohi chale aate ho
Peeche Peeche dum hilaake tum aate ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum Kaat-the kisliye ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum Kaat-the kisliye ho.

Head Back Home

1 comments:

Aslan said...

Yeah, I concur- They're a friggin' pain in the "you know where" (whether they succeed in biting it or not ;)

I've had a couple of incidents- but luckily they couldn't outrun a Pulsar 150cc.. but my unfortunate roommate had to fend off a score of 'em curs in BTM.

They're ubiquitous denizens of B'lore n' we sure can do without them. If only they'd restrict the use of their jaws to the beggarly, instead of letting us respectable hard-working software engineers have it.