My Pet Dog - Dina

I was just checking my old documents in my laptop, and I came across this article that I wrote on my pet dog 5 years back in school. Once I read it, I just had to share it with all of you. MY MISS UNIVERSE – DINA DUTTA ALIAS DOUBLE D 3rd Oct 1999 – We get news from India that my Grandfather is in serious condition. My Mom falls into a serious predicament. She desperately wants to go and meet her Father but she can’t leave my Brother and me all alone since we are too young. I am in class VIII and my Brother in class VI. She is heartbroken. 4th Oct 1999 – Somewhere around 7:10 pm walks in an angel, an angel upon whom my mom could bestow all her trust…an angel who would change our lives…an angel named Dina. Dina, my newfound dog. She is 3 years old. 6th Oct 1999 – My Mom leaves for Kolkata, but unfortunately for us, our Grandfather passes away right when she reaches the airport. In the afternoon I’m all alone with my Brother and Dina. It’s time for her lunch. I give her the bowl of food but she refuses to eat. So I resort to feeding her using my hands, literally. At this moment, she looks like an overgrown baby who has to be fed. I love her so much. 10th Oct 1999 – Dina has to be vaccinated. So we take her to the vet. He is amazed at how fat Dina is. He says, “She isn’t a dog. She is a sheep.” Well, what can I say, like me, like Dina. The vet gives her an injection. Dina howls a little and looks at me with pleading eyes. At this point, I have some idea about how my Mom had felt when I cried out of pain. Now I have a new nick for my Dina, she is My Miss Universe Dina Dutta alias Double D. 6th May 2003 – We are having the English week in our school and today we have the Pick and Talk Extempore Competition. The topic that I got is vegetarian food is more nutritious than non-vegetarian food. I speak about how my dog in India passed away and as such I had only vegetarian food for three days as a Hindu ritual and how I missed meat. Little did I know that after seven days I’d lose my angel. 11th May 2003 – Dina is suddenly unwell and vomits three times. To make her feel better my Mom takes her down for a walk. Out of the blue, she attends to nature’s call right in front of a garment shop. The shopkeepers ask my mom to give away Dina right away, or else they’d call the police and put her away. We all get scared and try to find a way out. 12th May 2003 – One of my Dad’s associate, who owns a garage, tells us that he could keep Dina at the garage. 13th May 2003 – We give away Dina with tear stricken eyes. I don’t know how many of you have actually read till here, but whoever has, thank you. I request you to have a little more patience and read on. During weekdays, every morning she would get her breakfast in bed comprising of two glucose biscuits. While she would be sleeping I would go to her and feed her. She never walked out of the bedroom unless and until it was around 12 pm, after which, she would come out to the hall and sit right in front of the kitchen, just to check out whether my Mom was ready with her lunch or not. But she would never enter the kitchen…she had that much courtesy. She literally ate everything under the sun, from Chocolate to Cerelac, from just plain Dal and Rice to Mangoes. But this 21st century dog didn’t like Pepsi. Amazing right? And yes, she was bought home as a bodyguard to my Brother and me, but she was one scaredy-cat, or dog, whatever. She was scared of her own bowl when it was devoid of food. She could have her name in the Guinness World Records for being the first ever dog to be petrified of cats. She has been attacked by the same cat twice! Most of my friends were scared of Dina, but they loved her anyway. But there were others who just adored her. They said that they had never seen a dog so quiet like Dina. Well, according to me, in my family, Dina was more human than any of us. Even though I don’t think about Dina every moment, she suddenly pops up in my thoughts. And whenever she does, I can’t help but cry. Just yesterday night, my pillow was wet with tears of agony, tears of helplessness, tears that flow uncontrollably in silence, tears that dictate that I’ll never have Dina again. There is this silence deep within me that gives way to tears when I’m all alone. It’s true that silence is the loudest of all noise. I’m still crying. I didn’t like this, so I sent an SMS to my dad who is in Dubai at the moment to check up on Dina. Later on I learnt that while my Dad was here with us, Dina had coughed out blood due to the intense heat there. When she used to stay with us, she was constantly inside the house, which was air-conditioned. And now, she has to live in open air without a fan where temperatures are soaring at an unbelievable 45° C plus. Her condition was so serious that the people at the garage considered taking Dina to the vet in order to put her to sleep. Gradually, she started recovering and just two days back she was back to normal. We requested our watchman if we could get Dina back, but he refused. He warned us that if we do, then he would lodge a complaint against us. Gone are those days when we had people who sincerely thought about the good of mankind and the world and genuinely worked towards it. If only I could, I would curse each and every individual behind all this iniquity. But then again, I’m acting like just another human, trying to inflict pain upon others. I think this runs in the human blood, this feeling of superiority and brutality. I’m ashamed to be called a human being anymore.I hope that whoever has read this article, include Dina in their daily prayer, wishing for her happiness. Thank you, dear friends.