I am trying to be a storyteller via my blog and this is my first story .
My story is a bit different from the stories I have read here and may seem to have a sad beginning but it’s the end that matters.
I have had many pets ( rescued parrot , rats, hamsters ) and currently I have 3 dogs “ Tiny , Khushi & Pluto “ . Tiny is a Saint Bernard and stays with my parents in my hometown . Whereas the city I am working in , I have adopted two strays , Khushi & Pluto . This is our story.
Through this story, I would like to advise people that there’s absolutely no difference between the love and playfulness of a stray dog compared to a Pedigree dog ( I do own a St. Bernard so I know ) . You surely cannot buy love so DON’T SHOP … ADOPT ☺
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As a child, I shared a common dream , a common desire to all individuals around the globe & it’s none other than to become a Superhero . As a child, no one ever dreams of owning luxurious cars or 7+ digits salary or a sea facing flat on the top floor of a skyscraper cause they are assured that these things will eventually come ” easily ” for everyone like a phenomenon . But what they desire the most is to have a superpower, any kind of superpower , to be a superhero, be righteous. I was no different , even I had to be a superhero as my life seemed quite abnormal and incomplete not having a superpower … How is that possible ?? surely my life story matched with the stories in the comic books, in fact, all the superheroes seemed to have the same life story as mine at some point in time. All of them… Yesss !!! Hence all sorts of crazy things had been wished for from a freaky accident which ends up turning me into a superhero to some crazy god descending onto earth to find the chosen one and I passed his test ( quite valorously if I may add ) and hence granting me some superpower boon . Those were the days.
Fast forward all dreams are shattered with the reality that is life . No luxurious car or 7+ digits salary or sea facing flat yet also no Superpower or flying into the sunset . But these things did not bother me much coming from a small yet cosmopolitan city with a kind of simple living middle-class family. Small city , simple friends , small ideas of fun , simple things giving happiness that’s what life was made of . No one tells you that living every day, running the rat race is what life eventually comes to when we grow up. One fine day this rat race got the best of my messy life and I had to move out of my hometown . Maybe it was for better job perspective or may be the instability in my personal life made me take such a huge step . But one day without giving much thought I just packed my bags and left for a strange city to disappear amongst strangers .
So I was in Delhi , moving around the crowd silently in conversation with my thoughts . Loneliness can be a big deal, it is present in everyone’s life in bits and pieces . But it hits you hard on your face when you are in Delhi especially moved in from some other city, whilst you are struggling with the high cost of living , food ,weather, pollution and the cusses . Whenever life hit back with craziness, I always found peace in pets (be it any sort) . To modify a quote ” The greatest pleasure of a pet is that you make a fool of yourself with them, but not only will they not judge you but also make a fool of themselves with you. ” So yes I have had many pets throughout and have taken care of them well . But here I was away from home with so little means to just barely afford few breaths of oxygen, keeping a pet was not an option . We humans forget to look for the best in whatever is available to us and often run behind what we desire .
But when I did look around me loads of love & company was available in the form of stray four legged fur . I started feeding them and in return, they would turn up daily , sit with me or be around me for sometimes , listen to whatever idiotic things I spoke to them and life seemed “OK” once again . You don’t need to be doing amazing in life , it is OK to be OK at times .and these four-legged creatures taught me that . Anyone will surely acknowledge that strays have it real rough . So much cruelty and hardship these lovely creatures have to face in life that even to have grown up into an adult from a pup seems like a big achievement , yet they seem so hopeful , still willing to trust and still willing to love back .
That is when I met Khushi , she was 3-month-old pup back then who would run around the whole colony playing with her brother of the same age come rain or shine they would play around like there is no tomorrow . They would play with every possible person passing by them from every walk of life in that colony. Some people did like her a lot but so are the times that people with hatred are in majority and would take offense even on a pup for the sake of it . So one day her brother just disappeared never to be found again and when enquired and searched for by sane-headed people, they found out that few members of the Society Association ( with political connections ) thought strays are not good for the ” image ” of their society and they got rid of Khushi’s brother , I do not want to imagine where or how . But the fact that he was more friendly and trusty is why they could get hold of him whilst Khushi was a bit smarter so she survived .
Still, she grew up to be everything opposite of being aggressive . I don’t know if it was only me who had a lot of affection towards her or even she had grown an extra affection for me ( as she was playful and affectionate to everyone hence she was named Khushi )but a bond had been formed . She knew when I woke up, she knew when I would leave for my office , she knew when I would be back and she would always be there be around me and this in a way kept me happy and engaged in my free time .
One fateful day, early morning while I was returning from my gym all I could see was blood puddles at many places after entering the society and near my house in a corner in mud was Khushi , around her was a lot of blood oozing out of both her hind legs . I started hyperventilating , I was in disbelieve , I dropped my bicycle there itself and ran towards my house to fetch my cell phone , my mind was baffled as soon as I entered my house I threw up . My mind was upside down , it felt like being on a thin line , I could loose her if I failed in getting any kind of help but also not knowing anyone here with low income and resources how was I to help her ?? But I had to try , I was not going to give up on her , I ran out towards a medical store while making calls to vet hospitals with NGO support ( she was a stray which NGO’s claim to work for ) but all I could manage was to get a name of a medicine that would just stop her bleeding , went back and tried to dress her wound in whatever best way I could , tried to feed her the medicine not knowing what else to do . Being early morning even private vet clinic were shut, I did not know where to take her, I didn’t own a car , I have never felt so helpless in my life. But by gods grace two people ( who are now my good friends ) came forward to help and took her to the vet hospital in their car while I followed on my bike , her x-rays were taken , wounds were cleaned checked and dressed . Though thing could turn towards amputation but that would be decided only after her X-rays reports are back , but still even with the trauma and so much blood loss she survived . But that was just the beginning of another problem . She was a stray , she had no place , no support while she had to be on bed rest and to be brought to the hospital regularly for her treatment .
There I was again on a thin line , I was staying in one-room flat barely surviving on my income with no support of any kind , my life wasn’t so called stable but my walking away would once again make Khushi’s survival uncertain . I had to make a decision right away , but I did not take much time to decide that from that day onwards even I won’t ever stay alone and that Khushi will stay with me until the end of her days, she had adopted the craziness of my life , she had adopted me . Days passed by in her recovery and me trying hard to manage my funds and to not let my credit cards max out, but I didn’t worry , we were managing things happily spending time in each others company . Though in a bandage and in pain, in a months time Khushi was back to being herself ( playful & jolly ) .We even shifted to a bigger rental accommodation in the same society ( credit cards…. Yaaaaay ) .
To be honest, these were difficult times , coming back from office and rushing to the clinic to get the dressing changed and then coming back home tired and not be able to cook , staying up quite late at night doing freelance work for some extra income , hence not able to continue my daily exercise schedule . Though it may not sound much big of a problem but I had fought obesity getting into shape( from 90Kg’s to 64 Kg’s ) . But during this trying times, I again gained some weight.
Even Khushi was fighting her own battles , when I was in office the whole day she would be resting but when she started getting better she started getting restless as she was not accustomed to this lifestyle . Until one day I stumbled upon Pluto.
In the middle of harsh Delhi winters, Pluto a 3months old pup had run away from something utterly scared & had ended up on the terrace of one of the buildings in our society . The watchman had informed me about him , it had been almost three days he was there sitting in a corner of that terrace with no food and water . Though he had a belt on him he was nowhere close to being friendly , he was very aggressive , bleeding from his gums . It took a lot of patience and me sitting with him on the terrace for a long time before he would accept to eat the food and water that I had offered . This process went on for days before he would even let me touch or come near him . Hell, he almost bit me once . But soon he found his trust on me . I would get him food and water every morning and evening , play with him a bit but later he was all by himself. He would try to follow me but he was scared of stairs . Sometimes I would try to check on him from the garden downstairs and would see him sitting on the edge of the terrace grill , he knew I would come there to look for him , he would start barking for me . This whole situation troubled me a lot , say what if someday I wouldn’t be able to take food for him, he would go hungry and thirsty, he was already staying in the open in harsh Delhi winters , I had tried to make a temporary house for him using cardboard box on the terrace but he was too dumb to stay inside the box he was just 3months old . To make all matter worst were these few ” responsible society members ” who wanted to drive him out as if he was some kind of pest , ” what if he comes to us suddenly and bites ” they reasoned , “proper education and upbringing would have saved you ” I wanted to respond .
One such winter evening while standing on the terrace my mind was deeply troubled , Pluto’s situation troubled me , it was not hard to foresee the outcome of his life with all the given circumstances . Even the weather was at its worst , not only was it chilly but also it seemed that soon it was going to rain . It was already dripping a bit here and there while Pluto being ignorant to everything kept playing and running around me, boy he was dumb , he was just 3months old . I picked him up put a leash on him and took him home.
Khushi was unforgiving , she was quite territorial and this little guy Pluto was trespassing her turf . But due to my presence and interference, any kind of fight was avoided . In an hour or two Khushi seemed fine with him , though she wasn’t going to allow him to use her things , her bed or even me . He would try to sit on my lap and she would pull him down . Even Pluto did not want to try his luck much and slept in the hall near the door that day . Morning came with different problems , Pluto wasn’t house broken and puppies do have small bladder with absolutely no bladder control . He would chew , eat , swallow and then shit back things , he still behaved a bit aggressively to new situations due to his trust issues and bad experiences in the past . But he seemed loveable . He was put for adoption the next week . I had got ads printed and circulated it around my area via a newspaper . I did get some responses but none of them wanted to adopt him , all they could give were some prayers or advice on how to get rid of this responsibility.
Unfortunately, I did not know how to use those “prayers” nor was there any question of Pluto being some kind of responsibility to me . Even a handicapped pedigree dog has more chances of getting adopted than a healthy stray dog was what I learned from my whole experience . Dividing a piece of bread into 3 parts seemed a better option than running behind people to get him adopted . And that day onwards Pluto ” officially ” joined my family and since then my life has not been the same, to be honest, it was mostly difficult with me coming to terms with the responsibilities , Khushi and Pluto getting adjusted to this new life , expenses , working on Pluto’s aggressive behavior , coming home to chewed up shoes , matters or anything chewable. But eventually things returned to being normal , the chewing stopped bit by bit , the wounds healed , Khushi started running and playing again even if it means she has to limp a bit at times , Pluto has mellowed down a lot though he still takes some time to trust new people and adjust to new situations . To others they might not look like ideal or ” cute ” pet dogs , they seem to be a bit broken but so am I , so is everyone in some way .
This is when I realized how tough it is being a Superhero , but then I always wanted to be one didn’t I ?? This is when I realised that in all the stories which I had read in those comic books , it wasn’t because of some superpower that those people became superheroes but because they chose to be , because they took a decision to do the right thing under any circumstances , because they put the need of others before their own .
The comic books taught us that When the going gets tough, the tough gets going . Only the ” superpower ” part was a work of fiction in those books .And who is to say that I do not have any superpowers or that we humans do not have any superpowers . For these animals our abilities to talk , make decisions or to be able to do things they cannot and change their whole life is nothing less than some kind of superpower , only to become a superhero or not is in our hand , just a decision away , well it was my childhood dream to become one , that is what I did , i took that decision .
I became a Superhero .
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