As a little kid I was quite moved by a movie named HALO.
It was a story about a girl who had no mother. Once while returning home after school, the girl came across a fortune teller. She saw him telling people what was going to happen in their future.The girl was very fascinated to see that.Next day the girl went to the fortune teller and asked about her future.The fortune teller knew about the girl's past, about her mother's death,so he told the girl that her mom was concerned about her and she will soon send her an angel.The girl inquires that how will she recognize the angel and the fortune teller told her that the angel will have a yellow light behind him.He will have a HALO.The girl was convinced and she left with only one thing in her head,the angel will come soon.
The little girl waited for days but nothing happened.She got disappointed and stopped waiting.Few days later she was playing with her friend when she saw a puppy standing on the small table in the room and that too against a light bulb.You can guess what thought hit her mind! Yes, she thought that puppy to be her angel. :-)
The days that followed were the happiest off all for her, until one day, when the puppy gets lost.She tries hard to find him back but all in vain.Then one day her friend comes to her to tell her that she had seen the puppy in someone's house.The girl rushes to that place.She heard puppy's voice there.She asked the people living there to return the puppy but they refused to.The girl was determined to get her angel back and she managed to get the puppy in her hands somehow.She was about to leave when a boy on wheel chair came calling the puppy with the name he had given him.The little girl turned around to see the boy and was moved by what she saw.The boy was not only handicapped but mentally retarded too.The boy was calling the puppy with so much love that it seemed to the girl that he couldn't live without the puppy.The girl realized that the boy was more in need of the little one than her.She handed the puppy to the boy and left with tears her eyes.
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From the day when I watched this movie I wanted to have a puppy for myself too.As always, I was lucky to have one soon.
My cousin brought a puppy to his place but his parents refused to keep it because they already had a dog.I was scared of my parents as they had not agreed to keep a dog but I tried my luck. I took the puppy to my place and hid it under my mom's shawl.When momy came to take the shawl she found a puppy under it.The puppy was cute enough to make anyone fall in love with himself.I stood beside her with pleading eyes and to my joy she agreed to keep it.This was how I got my first dog and I named him Halo,my angel :-)
I would treat him like a baby.Stared at him when he slept.Played with him.He was a healthy pup so I use to show him puppy biscuits to make him walk even few inches.Had a happy time with him,till one day when my Halo got lost.
Somebody took Halo away.I was in tears.I could not believe that.I would go out with my dad to find him.We even tried to find him in streets at mid night. But there was no sign of him...
Five days passed,then ten and then fifteen.It was the sixteenth day when the miracle happened.I had returned home after school and standing in the street when someone from the neighborhood told me that my dog had returned.I jumped in joy and ran inside the house to see my Halo.He was there and was very weak.He did not come to me while I was standing at the door.He was too scared to get out of the house.I hugged him.I came to know that our maid had brought Halo back.She was walking on the road when from nowhere Halo came and jumped on her.At first she was scared to see the dog but after few minutes she recognized it was Halo.She walked back to our house with Halo.
My angel was back but he wasn't the same dog,that I knew before.He was aggressive and was ready to bite anyone.I was bit by him thrice.He started attacking people when he felt threatened by them.May be it was because he was a mixed breed of panther,a dog that is used for hunting, or due to some other reason. Whatever it was,my parents had decided that he was leaving.They got him in the car and head to a place that was about thirty kilometers from the city.A family had agreed to keep Halo.They lived in a farmhouse and needed a dog for security reason.I was assured that those people will take good care of him.
A month passed and during this time period I heard my parents talking about Halo trying to run away the farmhouse a several times.When I tried to ask about Halo they would just say everything was fine.I did visit the place once to see him and he was happy being there but when I was leaving he started barking and made sounds which, a dog lover knows, are only meant for pleading.I came back with a heavy heart.Few months later I came to know that Halo died.He was tied to the pole with the rope and he wanted to escape again.As he tried to free himself,the rope tied around his neck tightened and ultimately he was silenced for ever.
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My love for dogs was bound to increase after that.I had learned to move on and I knew my dog was not coming back again.No more dogs in the house was my parent's command so we did not have another one.One good thing about India is that you need no license to keep a dog and you can have dogs in your street too :-)
I don't remember exactly how Gopi,a street dog, came here.All I can recall is the cold, foggy winter morning when I was standing outside my house and saw five or six puppies,shivering severely.They were trying to get together,one on the other, to keep themselves warm but it was of no use.I went inside and told mom about it.We got a cardboard drum and a jute sack for the poor puppies.We thought they would get into it as soon as they saw it but they did not. I pulled up my sleeves,took a towel and started running after the puppies to put them one by one in the drum.They made funny noises while I was running after them. :-)
For the whole winter season that drum was there house but their number kept on decreasing.When spring arrived I saw only two of them and I guess Gopi was one of them.
The name was given by a four year old toddler in my street who found the dog as his first friend.I never felt like changing the name for myself and started calling the dog Gopi.
Thought Gopi was a street dog but he was loved by all the houses in the street.He was every house's dog.Some would feed him with milk in the morning and some would get bakery buns for him.He would play with the kid I mentioned before in the evenings.During hot summer afternoons we would let Gopi come inside our houses and rest under the cooler stands, and during cold winter nights he was made to sleep in a blanket.When he was bit by other street dogs I was the in charge of looking after his wounds.Once he got bitten at his back and that too to such an extent that that he had maggots in his wound.It was tough job to treat him,after all he was street dog.Day and night only one thing ran in my and my brother's mind that how to inject the medicine in Gopi's wound.That was the sole mission of our days at that time.We succeeded then and Gopi recovered fully.
There was another class twelve boy who spent most of his time with Gopi.They were usually found together roaming in the street.The boy was so much attached with Gopi that he cried for several days after he had gone to Australia.He would call back home just to know how was Gopi.Not only the boy but even Gopi was found grieving and looking for his companion.Days passed and Gopi knew the boy was gone.Now he spent most of his time with the other younger kid.He would come to me too for being cuddled. If I stopped he would touch his head to my hands and insist to carry on.I loved it that way. I FELT HALO WAS BACK.He would even come running to me in the morning when I would be walking to my college bus.
Two years passed like that and it was happy time for Gopi. He was loved by all.
Last month Gopi was was attacked again by a group of street dogs.This time his wounds were fatal one and he could not survive.Few minutes before his death I went to him to spray the medicine.Just when he saw me and my brother he started shivering.We sprayed the medicine and returned home with doubts and fear in our minds.I knew he would not survive this time.My younger brother came to me after almost an hour and insisted to go out and see Gopi.We did go and saw him lying there.My brother was scared to check it out for himself so he asked me to touch him and move him.That was the first time I felt a dead body,cold and stiff.
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I'm not sad while remembering these incidents.These have surely made me strong and taught me the need to move on.
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