More stories and memories for my son
Dearest son,
It should be probably 77 or 78 probably my mother could remember the year and months clearly. I don’t know why we got a dog that too an Alsatian. My father brought home the puppy and announced someone gave it as a gift to him. This was the time my mother was transferred to Madras and was living in Madras. As a surprise we called her on the phone and made the dog bark into the mouth piece. I don’t know what my mother thought of having a pet dog but my friends loved it. They were fascinated by it probably, because of the novelty of an Alsatian or the size it grew into. But I am not sure whether I or my mother wanted a dog, come to think of it my father got whatever he wanted and he wanted a dog.
The dog was a big hassle. It was a female and when it menstruated like any man my father hated it. It made the house stink- even though it was not allowed inside. Once I remember we returned home and the dog had torn my school bag into pieces. Earlier that day when I returned from school and kept the bag at the entrance itself. The door to our home was what was called a spring gate. The dog was able to reach it from outside and shredded my beloved military bag to pieces. Again he was furious with the dog unlike my mother, who thought it was my fault. He kept on shouting at it for long time for it.
The other hassle is feeding the dog. The dog needed to be feed meat. Meat in Madurai meant lamb or goat and it was not possible to feed the dog an expensive commodity. I am also not sure whether it was easy to get mutton on weekdays in Madurai in the 70s. So they decided to get beef instead. I am not sure how he did it- but they found a beef guy who will deliver to our home.
My father for all his liberal views did not think it was clean to cook beef or food for the dog in the kitchen. So a make shift outdoor stove was made by placing three stones. The stove was fired by firewood which was usually not the case in our home. A separate mud pot was purchased to cook the beef. 2 or 3 days per week the guy will come home with the meat and start cooking the beef and some rice in the same pot. Julie was feed this porridge of rice and beef.
Even though the dog needed so much attention it also made my father happy. Like anyone in the 30s my father had suddenly thought of “jogging”. He could wake up in the morning, ask me whether I wanted to join and put Julie on a leash and off we went. We would start from our home and ran up to Jayaraj theatre. I and Julie enjoyed it very much, but for a man in the 30s who smoked like a chimney, I suppose it would have been difficult. So after a few days like many things his life he either got tired or bored and stopped.
As the dog was a female it bred and had 7 puppies. This was exciting for me but sadly even after my strong protest all of them were given away to different friends of the family. It would have been probably too difficult looking after 7 little Alsatian. One of it was sent to my friend Vicky’s house. My father comes home and says “do you want to visit one of Julie’s little ones”, “yes” I said and off we went to visit it. Vickys house was opposite to the Vadamalayan hospital (actually the bungalow which is now part of the hospital). The bungalow was huge and they had at least 2 grounds of garden in the back. You would see all kinds of birds, animals in neatly arranged huge cages and in one of it was an Alsatian Julie's pup.
I come home from school as usual and I could not find the Julie. I don’t remember being too attached to it, but was curious. I ask about it and my father said “you know Arun’s father has an estate in Kodaikannal”, I say “yes” even though was not sure whether Arun’s father had any estate.
“Well the dog has gotten big and it is difficult to maintain it so I send it up there”. I may have been confused if I had not believed him completely. Next day when my friends asked me where was Julie, I was making up stories of how jolly the dog was living in a huge estate- where it can hunt and guard the whole place rather than being in our house. They were very impressed with the idea. When I grew up started hearing “gone live in the farm” was a common way to tell little boys about the dog’s death, I started to doubt the story. Well until this day I have not asked my mother what happened to the dog- was it really sent to Kodikanal or was my father telling some white lies. Really did not matter to me- my truth is Julie lived out rest of her life in an estate in Kodaikannal.
In 2017 I went to Madurai for my cousin's wedding. My uncle wanted to show me a picture- an old black and white picture he had kept safe all those years. What do you know- it was me standing a stretch along trousers with Julie.
PS- As you son we always had cats as pets
Love
Hariohm
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