It was a stormy evening in my village, when I was leisurely enjoying the Cartoon Network Channel, say The Scooby Doo Movies and The Popeye Show.
uuuoooon....uuuoooonnn...uuuooooo.....uuuuoooooonnnn....
I barely cared.
The TV and my mom's scolding continued to play. My father was cursing for not letting him to watch the 8'O clock news. We thought News was the ugliest thing which could occur on such an entertaining device. A singular face, looking at us like a moron and moving the lips uttering unusual sounds was boring to the core.
uuuoooon....uuuoooonnn...uuuooooo.....uuuuoooooonnnn....
I tried to care a little and then dropped the idea of finding where this very familiar sound is coming from, in this stormy evening. Because I know, if I attend to it, it will become of burden of responsibility. I tried to concentrate on my own troubles like, how Im gonna handle my Tamil teacher the next morning, for I didnt complete the imposition. I was devising many techniques to spend as little time at home as possible, in doing things which in any remote way is related to school.
uuuoooon....uuuoooonnn...uuuooooo.....uuuuoooooonnnn....
uuuoooon....uuuoooonnn...uuuooooo.....uuuuoooooonnnn....
Impulse drove me out in the direction of that sound. There laid, in the adjacent plot, amidst wet sand and mud, a poor little light brownish living thing, which elders of our place use to call 'a dog'. I dont know how it happened to come there, who was its mom or which Rakshas left it there. All I wanted to do was to feed it with little warm milk and bring it home and make it feel little cozy. I went out and looked at it and observed it closely. My brother with umbrella in his hands, extended it involuntarily to cover the pup from rain. The pup little raised its poor eyebrows and looked at us. There was a thousand words in that one look. It said....
Oh! Atlast some mercy in the world.....
Please.... Give me some food and shelter....
Who are you guyz? Are you gonna hurt me? Please dont....Ill myself die in another few minutes...
And many other words in just one look...
I was in my VIII class by then. I had to get permission from my mom for doing anything new. My mom came out and looked at us critically, asked a few questions about it and asked us to leave it there and come in coz it was raining. It was not a high quality breed but the common type found on South Indian roadside. The highly disgusting animal for many Indian households. But for me and my brother, it looked like a poor living thing appealing for some food and life, which were its birthright. I searched for its mom, the only thing which can wipe of the sorrow in just a second.
Then we decided to give it some shelter below the staircase which leads to the terrace of our house. We picked two old gunny bags and made a bed for it. I brought a kottankuchi, after ensuring that none of the eyes of the wooden cup are open, poured little milk into it and took it towards the mouth of the creature. It smelled the milk and rose upon its feet and drank it hungrily. With every lick of the milk the creature made, I was growing happy as if my tummy was getting full. It finally licked it and cleaned its new wooden cup, rolled its tongue around its mouth, raised its head and looked at us. We tried it with little more milk. It worked only to half the cup and then it went to sleep for the night. Fully satisfied of the good deed I did for the night, I slept happily.
From next morning we started feeding it daily and without knowing we adopted it as our pet. The pup chose the space below the staircase as its home and we could always find it there. It got used to our faces and voices. I was surprised and happy and grateful all at once when my mom gave me an old plastic bowl as a plate for the pup.
Namakaranam: A week later, it became part of our family. We were calling it
'Naai kuty'. But its not the usual practice with pets. That evening we discussed and finally chose the name as
'Somu' (because Ramu was a very common dog name in those days and we didn't want to copy bcoz it was not exam time).
Another week slowly wagged off... sorry... went by....
And Somu got used to its name. We often call it by name and rejoice when it turns its head in the direction of the voice calling its name. Ill do all experiments. Ill go to the backyard, terrace, verandah window and try call its name, to double check whether it accepted its name and knows that. I felt proud when it responds for its name coz Im the one who converted it from a
'Naai kutty' to
Somu.
After months, people in the locality started accepting the pup too and to add to my happiness they too called it Somu. I sometimes proudly share the namakaranam experience with the other children of the locality. They also started feeding it. Somu slowly became our locality's dog. Everyday, it will get food in some house. But wherever it went, it came to its home for sleeping. Daily night we will spend some time together sitting out. Somu will also sit with us and listen to us. We were not sure if it understood when we talked about it. One evening it saved us from a big bug (Nattuvaakkaali) bite. Whenever we come home after a long absence, vooowh... it will act crazy licking all of us, coming round and round, uttering crazy sounds.
A neighbourhood kid used to sit on it and go for a
Naai savaari. It never bites anyone. It was a warm and friendly dog to everyone. Atlast one day it was killed by a pig shepherd in the midnight because it used to be a hindrance for the pigs to cross our area. Pitifully we buried it near the paddy fields. I was again surprised when my mom cried on its death and I didnt. Of course I was very sad and eventually I forgot. But whenever I see that guy, I mean that pig shepherd I get the memories of my
Somu.
