Monday, September 6, 2010

Every Dog has its Day, Every Day !

Ever heard of the phrase ‘every dog has its day’. Well, I would like to expand it to ‘every dog has its day everyday’. Yeah, I mean it literally as that seems to be the reality these days. The obsession with the pets is a latest trend in the society. If you happen to go to meet a relative or an old friend at his house and if that person happens to possess a dog, you are most likely to be bored with the incessant talk of praise about that so called intelligent, obedient, cute and lovely bitch or son of a bitch! All your efforts to divert the discussion would meet with little success until you also join the party in appreciating that canine soul who has blessed you friend and his family with its existence on the earth. If you try to keep the dog away from you, you will be coaxed by your friend to touch, hold it in your hands and caress it. Otherwise you run the risk of being labeled as a coward, animal phobic or a spoilsport. The only excuse which can save you is that you are allergic to the dogs. But that also does not work with old friends. I don’t have any problems if someone likes to have pets. But it’s the disproportionate amount of attention and importance which they provide to their pet compared to its functional utility that baffles me. People say that dogs are useful to protect your house from being filched by thieves especially at night time. But I really doubt the validity of this argument. I have not heard a single case of a thief being caught because he was attacked by a dog when jumping over the fencing of a house at late night hours. In fact, the large number of false alarms raised by the dog while barking at any stranger passing the street must be making the house dwellers ignorant about it. Like small babies at home, dogs also serve the purpose of exhibitions. Like the babies in the house, you are supposed to shake hands (your hand and its leg) with the dogs also, watch with awe and amusement how they dance to the tunes of a song, appreciate their intelligence and obedience in following the orders of their owners, listen intently about their hygiene, food, vaccination and even barking. Moreover, the dogs across India seem to be possessed by colonial hangover. It seems that they can only understand English, so their owners are compelled to instruct them in the same language. The dogs also serve as the status symbol for the aspirants and members of crème la crème of the society. The money you paid to buy the dog is in proportion to rarity of breed of the dog. This in turn translates to more bragging opportunities for the owner. Everyone in India is aware of the fact that the rates of that particular breed of the dog which was shown in Vodafone advertisements increased exponentially when those commercials hit the air waves. You must have also seen TV programmes about the dogs owned by celebrities from Hollywood as well as Bollywood. In fact, one such dog helped to run the gossip mills in Bollywood when apparently Amir Khan revealed that his doggie is called Shahrukh. This provoked a battle of words between the two Khans. Perhaps things could have been different had Amir also mentioned how much he adores and cares about his puppy. We should also recognize that dogs are those noble creatures on this planet which are supportive of livelihood of millions of people who are involved in the professions of Veterinary science, Pet foods, toiletries, clothing, hair styling, training etc. They also give chance to fading female celebrities to hog lime light by featuring in PETA ads which arouse the animal instincts within me every time I watch them. If you believe in the God, you would agree with me that God comes to your help in the form of a human kind. Well, few days back, I realized that he can take form of an animal also, a Doberman in my case. That dog is the new addition to my boss’ family. And it bit him hard on his arse last Sunday!

1 comment:

mindpuzzle said...

@ Anirudh : That is an interesting observation..Totally agree with you..Calling a dog a dog infront of his owner requires the same courage as 'calling a spade a spade' has !