Are we (animals) roaming in your streets, cities, roads or your roads, streets, cities, houses have encroached everything of ours?

Some questions of animals to humans

Akshay Azad

It has been almost three hours since darkness descended over Gadigarh locality of Jammu city and Lomu has been strolling around a house. For the last few minutes, he is continuously looking towards a window, probably of the kitchen. The folks have almost done with the dinner but Lomu is still waiting. While someone is washing dishes, Lomu frequently pricks-up his ears over the clanking of utensils. Lomu hopes of getting some piece of chapatti or morsel but finally lights of the kitchen were turned off and window was closed, leaving him disheartened. He kept on waiting for few minutes but finally start walking slowly.

Lomu

After treading few meters, Lomu reached near the labourers’ locality and started sniffing near hand-pump for some grains of rice or chapatti. But already there were two white puppies, whose mother has permanently made her home, the open space in front of Labourers’ locality. These two puppies are filling their little bellies with left over rice, which fell on grass while cleaning dishes by the labourers. Lomu roared the puppies and ate some bits but when mother of the puppies returned, Lomu has to depart.

The ten, one room-cum-kitchen settlement of the labourers, provides little relief to some stray dogs. The labourers had no sink in their kitchen-cum-rooms, so each of them visit hand-pump to wash dishes. They throw water over grass, where small puppies jumped over each other to lick every grain of rice. Every early morning, labourers woke up and prepare food over earthen chullas in their rooms and go to sell their labour. 

These dogs are like labourers in one aspect. The labourers have to wake up early and prepare themselves to go work for food, while empty bellies can’t allow the dogs to sleep for long, so they also wake up with the first woman labourer, who makes fire in the earthen chullahs.  

Allowing these two puppies (named Sheru and Dogi by labourers) to eat left-over food, is problematic for the labourers, who have to listen repeated abuses of a woman, who blame them for bringing dogs outside her house. The dogs used to sit in the alley, which passes from the vacant plot in front of Labourer’s colony, to the woman's house. Despite being very rich, this lady had never given food to these street dogs but occasionally abuse labourers for feeding the dogs.

Sheru and Dogi

Sheru and Dogi had another sibling, who was crushed to death by an Innova driver, residing behind Labourer’s colony. Three persons were witness to the killing of the puppy but when they confronted the driver, he refused to accept his fault and blamed puppies for sitting in the middle of the lane.  This Innova driver had shot dead another dog with air gun. He drives car in high speed and run over a cat also. There is no dearth of such insensitive people in the locality.

It was almost 10:30 PM and locality had almost slept. Darkness had engulfed the locality but light coming from households, was making visible open fields between houses. Lomu had to put breaks on his hopes of getting food and with little food in his belly, he reached in front of an under construction house, where his two other siblings had already reached. Most probably, none of them had got enough food even today but it has become new normal in their life and they have been accustomed to scanty food.

Lomu and his siblings

Since their birth, the day has not come in these dogs’ life, when they would have got enough food to fill their bellies. There were few happy days in the life of these dogs, when their bellies were filled. They had not even opened their eyes and used to suck enough milk from their mother (Kali). But now Kali has given birth to seven new puppies and Lomu and his siblings have been left to fend for themselves. With scanty food, Lomu and his siblings, have been getting for the last two three years, their ribs have become apparent and bellies squeezed.

Their mother is little fortunate that she has been getting regular food from some women of the locality. These sensitive women also provide some food to Lomu and his comrades but the food is usually as per the choice of humans, rather than according to the volume of dogs' hunger. But at-least these women are far better than Innova driver and the lady cursing labourer, that they are feeding the dogs.

Probably, these compassionate ladies understand the pain and agony of a mother such as Kali, who has seven children. Kali’s care for her children is unmatched and belies the claims that animals have only instincts and reflex actions. Whenever Kali is pregnant, she search for some hidden shelter, where the new born puppies will be saved from sunlight, rains, cold etc. She spent hours together on the first few days of her delivery and came out from hideout, only in search of food. If she will realize that the shelter can prove insecure for puppies, she will shift them to another secure place. 

Similar to cats, Kali also shift these puppies, catching them in her mouth, one by one. After nearly fifteen or twenty days, little puppies opened up their eyes and after one month and few days, these puppies will start following their mother and even starts making small barks.

Kali along with her few puppies

As the puppies grow, Kali realize that her milk is not sufficient to feed them, so her next task is to teach her children how to eat solid food. During these days, whenever a chapatti is given to Kali, no matter how much hungry she is, she would take the chapatti and throw it in front of her puppies. In the initial days, puppies leave the chapatti unnoticed but Kali keep on putting the chapatti in front of them.

Among puppies, some grow stronger and start eating food but Kali keep on watching them and those who are unable to eat, give milk. It is beyond imagination, how Kali realized the increasing hunger of her children and how her own appetite become secondary against her puppies’.  

Helping others in danger, such philosophy is inherently learnt even by these few days’ old puppies. One day, two puppies fell into a water filled pit. Unaware of the danger, one little puppy raised alarm and started making little barks. Kali was not available but the little barks invited attention of a person, who immediately saved these two little puppies from drowning. These two puppies were completely drenched and quivering but the other puppies started licking them probably as a posture of love and care, which is at decline in humans. 

The new puppies of Kali and of other dogs in the locality, have increased in number and their worries for food. Someone can claim that these dogs produce so many kids, so they are poor and remain hungry. A simple logic can be, if they are unable to feed them, why they produce so many children. Another argument for their poverty and hunger can be, they are not hard workers, so are poor. In a globalized world, there is open competition in the market and if they are competent enough they can achieve success.

But dogs have very simple answers. Stopping dogs from producing children are not in their hands and not in their scheme of things. Regarding the hard work, Kali, Lomu and many other dogs have been working hard throughout the day and night, in search of two piece of meal but unable to find that. The question of making their children competent enough to fight globalised competition is again out of their purview, as they are getting even food to fill their bellies and how they can compete with the dogs of open market, where the rule of strength runs supreme. 

Moreover, those who have taken birth in the nooks and corners of streets or some useless vacant spaces, they cannot compete with the dogs, who have no tension to fill their bellies.

The so called development paradigm of humans, calls to control ever increasing population of dogs by sterilisation but that sterilisation is restricted to only those dogs, who are born poor in streets, markets, localities and not of those, who are spending their time in posh localities.

We dogs on behalf of animals, reptiles and other organisms, make you (humans) unambiguously clear that we animals are not stray and roaming across your streets, cities, markets, localities, houses, roads etc.

But your cities, markets, streets, roads, houses have encroached upon our places of living, our jungles our earth. You humans have control everything, divide everything even this earth with the might of brute force, laws, social norms, traditions etc.

You humans, who claimed to be civilised have made a norm, which you called normal that anyone who is powerful, he can define every aspect of life, social norms, laws, criminality, civilised, uncivilised, peace, violence etc but those who are helpless like us dogs and animals, we have no power to define anything.

That does not mean, you humans are powerful and your perspective is right but our truth is that we animals are helpless and we can’t do anything, so 60 percent our population has been wiped out from earth in last few years. Only you humans are responsible for destruction of our world.  

You humans are selling and encroaching upon every portion of the earth, on which we also have equal share. 

With your increasing number of settlements, worries of all animals including Kali, Lomu, Sheru, Dogi and their next generation are increasing. Their upcoming generations will either die of hunger or you humans will make some laws. You humans never think for a while to kill us, even when we are not providing any threat to your existence. You people have been becoming self centred and seldom think about the life outside your boundary walls. When there will be not an iota of thinking about those, who need some help, how will throw a chapatti for Lomu and Kali.

Older generation was little bit sensitive. Even my grandfather, father, my uncle used to keep one piece of chappati for dog, whenever they took lunch or dinner even-though the dog was given complete lunch and dinner timely. Keeping a piece of Chappati was probably a practice to think about dogs. Even crows are given food during Sharads. Similarly, I have noticed in my childhood that when ploughing a piece of land, earth was worshipped.

Once, I asked my mother, “Those organisms such as earthworms or other reptiles, insects, which get killed during ploughing. Who is responsible for them”. She replied, “Firstly the sleeping earth is never ploughed and when the earth wakes up, the farmer prayed to the earth. In the prayers, he apologised for all the killings during ploughing”. All plants, animals, and other species have equal share on this earth, but those with power, they have taken the life of helpless far-granted.

I am unaware about the belief of other people, about the living organism on this earth but one of my friend, Ishfaq Shah told me, “It is written in our religious texts that whenever you start eating food, think for a while, if there is someone hungry near you?”. I am unaware about others beliefs, but if majority people will apply such thinking about others, whenever they will start eating lunch or dinner, then at-least hunger worries of countless number of species like, Lomu, Kali and her puppies will be addressed for a while.

Whenever, some unwanted sound or something is found, Lomu his siblings, Kali, Sheru, Dogi and their mother, start barking. They keep a watch in the locality till morning and when the locality wakes up, these dogs also wake up and start their daily search for some left-over food. Whenever you will start eating food, think for a while, Is there any Lomu, Kali, Sheru, Dogi, their mother or some person near your home, who is hungry?