163. World of JH

Oscar is a socialite. He likes to attend various social meetings in the town.

When the door is left open, Hamish runs away from the surgery and sits patiently waiting after reaching home.

Judy the nurse, dutifully watches everyone. She is always there to attend the ill.

Gertrude gulps two gallons of beer.

Bobby is a picture of massive muscle power.

Skipper is stunned by the death of Jingo and almost gives up his life too, only to be revived by presence of another young one in the family.

She is hiding her new-born baby.

What am I talking about?

Last few days, after reaching home from, I did not do anything but spent my time with those whom I have mentioned above.  

It does not matter that Oscar is a cat, which was found by a girl and brought to surgery.

I forget that Hamish is a Dog of a retired school teacher.

I have not mentioned that Judy is Eric Abbot’s sheepdog taking care of ill bullock and small chickens.

Gertrude is sow who has is just not allowing her newly born baby’s to come near her. The baby’s would die if it the mother continues to behave so.

Bobby is a splendid horse belonging to Mr. Mount.

Skipper and Jingo are two dogs.

There are not only cats, dogs, cows, horses, pigs.

There are interesting human beings as well.

Who would forget Tristan’s pranks? And his brother Siegfried?

The benevolent Mr. Barge with his Soothitt; Mr. Hollin the farmer with traditional wisdom; Mr. Mount with probing grey eyes; the overconfident Mr. Seth Pilling who had to eat his words; Mrs. Ridge who was happy even when her car was stolen because her dog Joshua barked at the thief; how lonely James feel along with number 87 of Mr. Blackburn; Paul Cotterell who appears so strong and James thinks that nothing touches Paul deeply.. how he commits suicide after his dog Theo had to be put to rest;    how blindness of dog Digger helps Andrew to come out of the dark phase of life…

There are stories after stories. Enchanting stories of the world of Darrowby .. World of Yorkshire.

As seen by James Herriot.

98. On Duty

The other day I was traveling. The train was to start from Mumbai Central and I had reached before time. Actually I always reach before time for this particular train, because the Pune – Mumbai train takes me there with a margin of at least three hours. I generally spend these three hours by eating something, reading books or newspaper and of course watching co-travelers without intimidating them.

This particular train is a Return Train. I mean it starts early morning from Ahmedabad, reaches Mumbai Central in the afternoon; again starts from Mumbai Central and reaches Ahmedabad late in the night. For me, it is convenient train, though I have to spend a day in transit. I travel by bus, only when I am traveling short distance or if there is no other alternative.

Even after the train arrives, one has to wait for half an hour as the coaches are cleaned by railway labor. It is disgusting to see the amount of garbage people throw in the coach during travel. But that is an issue for another post.

After I climb in the AC Chair car, I know what to expect in the next ten minutes. A beautiful dog with whitish almond color smooth skin enters the coach. He is apparently controlled by a police man. But I always feel that the dog and the police man have a tacit understanding about not troubling each other. Their relationship seems to be smooth and without passion.

Now this is bit funny. With all due respect to railway police, I find checking of coaches by bomb squad dog a little funny. I mean, this is a daily train. And if everyday you are checking the coaches at the same time, which foolish terrorist will get in the train with a bomb in his or her baggage? They can get in at Borivali, or Vapi or Valsad or Vadodara. Even they can get in at Mumbai Central after the dog has inspected the coach. There are still ten minutes for the train to depart.

But routines are routines and orders are to be followed mechanically.

I have been part of this scene so many times, that I have developed affection for this dog. Why dogs should die while discovering a bomb planted by human beings, is a question I am not able to answer so far. This dog is so silent, so clean, so beautiful that every time he passes by me, I want to touch him, I want to pat him, I want to say ‘Thank you’ to him. Of course, I have never done this. I do not want to invite attention of policeman and I am not sure that the dog would return my gesture with politeness.

Generally until the dog is in the coach, everybody is silent, everybody watches the dog move. And once it is out of sight, everyone is relaxed and turns to whatever she/he was doing when the dog arrived.

On that particular day, something strange happened. A man in full white started addressing the dog. He had come to see off someone and was engrossed in talk. When the dog approached him he suddenly started talking to the dog in a very friendly manner. What was surprising was that the police man stopped by that passenger; as if allowing him to play with the dog. The dog stopped too, but did not respond. He did not wave his tail. When the man in the white, tried to pat the dog, the dog just looked at him. His response must have been very cold as the man backtracked.

“Oh! It seems that Tiger has not recognized me”, the man in the white complained to the policeman.

“Sorry sir, he does not recognize anyone when on duty,” the policeman replied politely but with an immense pride.

The dog walked away with the policeman in a normal way.
The man in the white laughed awkwardly. He must have been intimidated by my questioning eyes.
“Madam, dogs are smart these days. I am one of his trainers. And this Tiger does not recognize me when on duty!! What kind of life we human beings have. Even dogs on duty are unapproachable” He sighed. Then he smiled – partly to me, partly to himself

Whether he was happy or sad about the dutiful dog, I cannot say.

42. A K, 4Ds, 6 Cs and 1 H

A story of a kitten, four dogs, six crows and one human being.

It was evening six. I had just returned from office after a day of monotonous work. I stay on fifth floor and on three sides I am surrounded by trees. To the north is a row of tin roofs - it is a ground-floor storeroom of the cancer center. It is about a distance of few meters – adjoining my compound wall. There are trees which are grown up to 40 feet. My mornings start with identification (rather a bad try to guess) of birds.

But this was evening. Suddenly I heard a loud noise on the tin roofs. It was followed by sudden bark of dogs and shrill cawing of crows. I rushed to the gallery. I first noticed four dogs barking with full throats. They were obviously angry at something, at someone. But I could not understand what it was. Then I noticed crows circling a branch of the tree ... which led me to a frail kitten sitting at a narrow spot which diverted into multiple branches.

The dogs were obviously chasing the kitten, for how long I did not know. The kitten running for its life had climbed the tree in a hurry. Now it was sitting in the midst of branches. The situation for it was to face devil and deep sea at the same time. On the lower side were the viciously barking dogs and on upper side were circling crows. From the distance it was difficult to say who was more furious whether the dogs or the crows.

The crows took the kitten as their enemy. They started attacking the kitten. Slowly they came near him, one touching its tail; other touching its side… the kitten could not move any part of its body. With a single movement, it would certainly fall down and the dogs were just waiting for that to happen.

I was anxious for the kitten. For a moment I thought of calling a fire station. But the calmness of the kitten was amazing. I was glued to the spot by the behavior of the kitten. It did not mew even once. It was not shivering or shaking. It was just looking at the crows and the dogs, calmly, quietly, without any fear or nervousness.

The crows came nearer. The kitten looked at them but did not move. The barking of the dogs lowered. One dog left the battleground. The rest of the three were definitely confused by the leaving dog. They looked at the tree and the kitten once and then at the leaving dog.

By this time the crows realized that the kitten was not attacking them but had problems regarding its own safety. They sat at a distance from the kitten and they stopped cawing. Slowly one by one they disappeared leaving the kitten alone. The kitten was sitting very silently. It was alert but silent as if it was deeply thinking. The silence created power.

My imagination went wild. If any other cat without knowing in which situation this kitten was; would have asked this small kitten, “Hey, how are you? What are you doing here alone in the evening’? I am sure this kitten would have replied, “I am fine uncle/aunty. I am just enjoying the sunset. This tree is very lovely. Would you mind joining me? Do you want me to help you?” There was something very spiritual about the kitten. In the midst of life threatening situation, the little guy was amazingly calm.

The crows disappeared, the dogs went away disappointed. With the sun set, darkness was fast enveloping the surroundings. Now I was indeed worried about the kitten. In that narrow space, it can’t wait all the night. It could not jump to the ground, because it meant a jump of at least fifty feet. It could not jump on the tin roof, because for that the kitten would have to turn around, which it could not due to the narrow space.

The tension within me was increasing. For a moment I closed my eyes. When I opened it, the kitten was on the tin roof, fully enjoying stretch of the body. “Ha! At last it is over” it must be saying to itself. I smiled at the kitten, I smiled at myself. I smiled at the energy the incidence gave me. I smiled at my weakness and I smiled at my vanity.

The kitten was slowly walking in the other direction. From deep within my heart, I said “thank you little chap for the lesson” to that kitten. Suddenly the kitten turned around and mewed pleasantly.

Did the kitten acknowledge my gratitude?

May be…..May be not …

22. Love and Care

It is second week of January. This is peak winter in this area. It is just 3.30 in the afternoon but the Sun has already decided to call it a day. The Sun is so pale that for a moment I mistook it for a moon. The bright yellow saraso flowers are silent. Are they meditating on a strategy of facing the chilly breeze? On the background of broken earthen walls, the scene is gloomy.

The breeze makes the winter cold more severe. The night temperature drops down to 1 to 3 degree Celsius and it is accompanied by fog. The Hindi word for fog is more beautiful – it is kohara. The Hindi word brings with it a flavor of mystery whereas fog just reminds me of pollution.

kohara starts encompassing the area as soon as the Sun sets, that is not later than 5.00 in the evening. It remains stationed till 9.00 or sometimes even till 11.00 in the morning.

I am in village Sarai Sultani in Pratapgarh district (Uttar Pradesh). We are a group of 30 people from 6 different states. Ten of us have come here to interact with Self Help Group (SHG) of women - other two groups are visiting two other villages. Actually, as always the organizers had told women to gather very early than the planned time. So, according to them we have reached late. The women waited for us and had gone back to their homes for work. Presently the days are too short to finish the tasks. The President of one of the SHG tells us that if women are late for meeting, they have to pay a fine. She half humorously and half seriously asks us to pay fine for our late arrival.

Within ten minutes, 20 women gather. I just see that the discussion is going on in the right way and desired direction. This is my fourth visit to this particular village. So, I am aware of the struggles of these women and I appreciate the change they have brought into their life and in the village. But I want others to find out the process for themselves. Apart from that, only I have a digital camera – so I am taking snaps.


Suddenly, by the side of the meeting I see this picture. A young man is covering a young buffalo with the help of a gunny bag. ‘What for it is?’ I ask. “Oh! It is very cold in the night outside, just to protect the young buffalo’, the young man answers. Looking at my bewilderment he patiently explains, “We use sweaters, shawls, blankets and jerkins to protect ourselves from cold weather, this animal can’t do it herself, so I am just helping.” It was a very interesting scene. The love and care expressed by the young man for his animal was worth watching, it touched my heart.

After the meeting, there were number of invitations to visit their homes. During the round in the village, I noticed all young animals were protected. See the goat here? She is wearing an old shirt. Some goats were wearing woolen sweaters. All young animals were covered with so colorful clothes, that it reminded me of a kindergarten. A number of children around us were smiling and laughing, I was capturing them in my digicam and showing those snaps to them ... which made them laugh loudly.......women were talking, men were discussing.... someone offered us amla laddu - sweets prepared by processing Indian gooseberry....


There was so much happiness and peace around. And Oh! Such a humane relationship these simple people have with their animals. Felt vary happy to see this love, care and concern and thousands of smiles.... Still carry the happiness with me...

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5. I Will Never Know

The squirrel ‘sound’ (don’t know what is it called) was audible enough to reach my office cabin at 10 in the morning. Hmmm… the squirrel gang is again in a playful mood, I thought. Wanted to have a look at them, but suddenly the phone on my desk rang and then I was engrossed in number of things. As usual my action is not much productive, but I keep on acting – by habit?

When I was going to canteen for lunch, the squirrel sound was very near to me. Now I had little time to look at them. I searched and went near the tree and saw a young one on a branch alone. The moment I approached the tree, it got frightened and its vocal cords were suddenly strained. Yes, this was a lost kid and was asking for help. My goodness, it was crying for last two hours. It was a small branch, and the kid was at the end of the branch. There was no way forward and it could not move backward (oops, many of us are in these situations, I think that is the reason I could empathize).

My heart naturally melted. But as it generally happens in such situations, I did not know what to do. I too was helpless. The young one turned on the branch and as if looked into my eyes – was it asking me for help or was it irritated enough with my inaction? ‘Come on baby, slowly move forward and come to the main branch. Don’t worry, if you fall down, I will catch you and you will be safe’ …. I was trying to tell that charming one – (with these emotions and not with these words). But the baby squirrel started shivering and became louder. May be its parents were nearby and were frightened because of my presence.

Animals, birds, trees have a way to approve or disapprove presence of human beings. (Human beings too have, but we have been trained to overlook it – that is called smartness in the human world!) . I stepped back, slowly. The baby squirrel’s shivering stopped. Was it a problem situation or not? I was confused. I stood there quietly for about 10 minutes. I and the baby squirrel looking at each other. I closed my eyes and searched for some instinct. Nothing. I was blank, the squirrel still distressed.

Thoughtfully I moved to the canteen, had a quick bite and within six minutes I was back to the tree. There was silence. No baby squirrel, no shouting, nobody was there. The tree alone was standing there. Till the evening there was no squirrel sound today. What happened to that baby squirrel? Was it playing or was it in pain? Did the mother fetch it up? Or was it unfortunate enough to visit the sky with the kite? Was it a dream? Am I guilty of not taking timely action?

I will never know.*