Dogs '100'(sudhir iyer) Dogs “100”

It is hot sunny noon and I am sitting next to a pond where five buffalo’s are taking a bath and having a good time looking at the sun. My name is “Vilas” and these Buffalo’s belong to my Granny. She makes a living by selling their milk, she also has a fine good piece of land with sugarcane plantation this year. She stays alone here and is happy with whatever she has. I come to this place once every month just to relax and help my Granny if she needs anything. The atmosphere is fresh and clean and it freshens me up. I am 19 years old and I work at the weight loss program institute in Mumbai. This institute is one of the best in Mumbai. Here we can see many fat people coming in every day to lose weight to become thin and smart without sweating. It sounds stupid but, yes, it's true, fat people have really become thin after they join this program. But once they become thin and plan to discontinue, thinking that they have lost enough and they are thin enough, I have seen them coming back again after a couple of months double the size they were before. No wonder why we are the best in the business in terms of profit. I really have not gone into the depth of this business, but understand that luxury is ruling this world, and everyone wants to gain without pain. I work here because I am paid good money, and I maintain good relationships with our fat clients. It's been almost one year now. My work is not thrilling, nor do I feel enthusiastic, it is just that I didn’t want to do any further education so I took this excuse of working. My parents don’t like it, but I can't help it, even as a child I used to tear books into small pieces. I really hate books. But that’s not the same case with my father “Gopal”, he was and even now is very much interested to learn and study. During his time my grandfather used to make him work on the farm and he hardly had time to study, but somehow he completed his graduation and joined the police force as a Constable. My grandfather couldn’t stop him, and my father found his own way to live life. He is now pursuing his MBA at the age of 45. He always tells me, “Son, you don’t know how it feels to study hard, prepare for an exam, and get a certificate. These certificates prove that I have acquired the knowledge and will help me to sustain in this competitive world.”

The sun is setting and I see those five buffalo’s coming out of the pond. It's time to go home. While walking toward my granny’s house I can hear some dogs barking. Some distance away there is a reservoir. I run towards the direction from where I hear the sound, and what I see is a boat with some dogs caged in it going towards that small island which is in the center of the reservoir. I wait until the boat comes back, and I ask them what they did with the dogs they carried with them. They tell me that they have left those dogs on that island, because “there are too many stray dogs in Mumbai city. Up till now we have been killing them, but some animal rights people have protested against the killing, so we cannot kill the stray dogs now. So what do we do if we cannot kill them? We have to leave them to this island. There are some more islands similar to this and what we do is catch them and leave them to die in their own natural way”. Saying this he left.

For a while I feel sad about this, but in another way I think that everything happens for good. Anyway, it's getting dark and I have to go back to Mumbai, and tomorrow again I have to make some fat people thin. So I leave. As I reach home I am a bit tired and exhausted, so I go to bed. Early in the morning I can feel someone licking my face. As I open my eyes I see my dog “Sunny”, he is probably asking me to take him for a walk, so I get up and take him out. As I walk a distance I see a beautiful girl with her dog. I can’t get my eyes off her and then without my knowledge I see myself standing next to her. It was Sunny who dragged me close to her. We both look at each other and don’t realize what is going on. Suddenly she gets distracted and shouts at the top of her voice. What we see is my dog and hers are busy making love. They are so much involved that we have to leave them alone. She can’t bear looking at this and runs to her house, and I waited for my dog to finish his job. Once done Sunny comes back to me fully exhausted. Then Sunny and me go back home.

It was about time to go for the job and I was waiting for my friend “Raju” to come and pick me up. Raju is my childhood friend and he loves bikes. He has seven bikes. Every day you can find him on different bike, from Monday to Sunday, and today was the day for me to sit on his worst bike, so I thought, why not go by bus today. So I walk towards the bus stand, and again I see this girl standing on the bus stand waiting for the bus. I walked up to her to say, “Hi my name is Vilas and I and am sorry for whatever happened today“. She does not reply and walks away. By that time Raju sees me and comes towards me to pick me up.

Like every day, even this day passed by. As I come back home, I see a police Van standing outside my house. As I enter my house I see my father packing his bags. There was an emergency and my father has to leave to a particular location where there has been a disturbance in law and order due to some communal riots. I saw my mother crying as if someone is dead. This happens all the time with my mother whenever my father goes to some distant location, my mother has to cry. I always try and console my mother saying that your husband is just a normal police constable and not an army man, nothing is going to happen, he will come back safe in a weeks time. Finally my father leaves. That one week my father is away he is bombarded with phone calls from my mother. Every hour she would call until he went to bed. Finally he is back home safe, she is happy to see him. For the weekend my father takes all of us to the village, we have a good time and come back.

On the other side of the world a terrorist group had been planning to create disturbace to developing nations, and on the list was INDIA, and their target was Mumbai. Mumbai has the highest population and is the financial capital of India and has always been in the limelight. There have been many terrorist attacks, still the city has always stood up. But this time it was going to be different. This group was determined to shake the whole world with their kind of disaster. I am not sure why and how people get into such activity, killing innocent people, what do they get? Maybe they are jealous of any country which is developing, and any country which has developed, and that leads them to anger and hatred. No one can change them, all we can do is protect ourselves.

It is on the evening of "Diwali", the festival of lights in India. We all are happy burning crackers when suddenly my father gets a call there has been a situation and he has to be there. He quickly dresses up to leave. This time my mother tries to stop him from going, but my father says that he will be back soon and leaves. After a while I hear a loud sound. It is different than a fire cracker. I ignore it and continue enjoying burning crackers, when suddenly I see Raju on his bike, he's come to tell me that there has been a bomb blast in a shopping mall nearby. I quickly turn on the TV for the breaking news and it is horrible. There is one more bomb, which was traced by the cops, and they are showing it Live. I saw a bomb squad moving towards the bomb to defuse it. Once done, when he removes his helmet, I see that he is my father, people are lifting him up, cameras are clicking photos. I am feeling really proud at this moment, but am afraid at the same time. So I turn off the TV, hoping that my mom should not know about this, but the news has spread like wild fire, so she would come to know anyway.

My father comes back home. He is looking a bit afraid and disturbed. I call to him, hug him, and say I'm sorry for whatever I had been thinking about him, and say “Dad you are a real hero”. He calms me down and asks me if my mom knows about it. I say no, but that she would come to know anyway. He asks me to call my mom and he finally tells her that he is not a normal constable, but a bomb squad in the police department, and that he had not revealed this to her before because she is always so afraid for his life. Listening to this she fell unconscious. After gaining consciousness finally, somehow my father convinces her he is safe, and everything is okay after this time.

This year my father receives awards, recognition, and we've become a very famous family in our colony. I'm getting to know everything about bombs. One day my father takes me to a village nearby and gets me introduced to his good old friend “Uncle Sam”, who is in the business of breeding dogs and selling the small puppies in the City. My dad says that he is very good in training dogs and has trained many police dogs. Since dogs have a very good sense of smell it is very easy for us to trace the bomb and defuse it. I am impressed and we talk about it for hours and hours.

My father is promoted from a constable to an inspector, all because of his bravery and additional qualification. The girl next door, whom I like, comes close to me after her dog gives birth to six puppies. Sunny is a proud father. Everything is going fine until the day my father passes away due to a heart attack. Since we are in this city only because of my father's job, and since he is no more, my mom is no longer interested in living in this city so we move back to the village.

Again I am with these five buffalo’s sitting on the side of the pond. I am sad and bored with life. I plan to visit “Uncle Sam” one day. He stays close to my village. He taught me how and what type of dogs are usually selected by the Cops for tracing bombs. Knowing about dogs has become interesting to me.

One fine day I am out walking towards the reservoir and I see the same boat with the cage and dogs inside. I run toward the boat, which is about to move to the island, and request they take me to the island. These people warn me that we cannot stay for long on that island as many dogs must have gone mad. When we reach the island we leave the dogs on the island, but I can’t find any mad dogs. Many dogs come wagging their tails towards me but are barking at the dog catchers, so they ask me to move back to the boat as soon as possible. Finally I come back, but I plan to visit the island again in a couple of days.

With the help of Raju I get a small boat and I start visiting the island with some food for the dogs every day, and I pick up thirty dogs to train them and make them police dogs. I take a part of granny’s farm and start the training, and with the help of “Uncle Sam” finally these dogs are ready.

After one of their failed attempts to create havock in the City, the terrorist group wants to strike back again. Mumbai city is in red alert, this time they don’t want to take any chances. The most sensitive locations are railway stations and bus stations, so cops are already there. As far as I have seen, the police dogs are bought to a location where there is suspicion that the bomb is planted.

Me and Uncle Sam, with thirty dogs, meet the commissioner of police and come up with a plan. We get all thirty dogs fitted with a belt and the number “100” on it. In India we dial 100 to call the cops. With the help of my girl “Simran”, who is working as a news reporter, we get the message relayed to the public not to harm the dogs with the number “100”, that these are police dogs and they are here to help trace a bomb. If a bomb is found, the dogs will bark, and citizens are then requested to dial “100” and mention the location as soon as possible. This message is relayed and so it is time to trace bombs. Dogs are left in different busy locations in the city, and from morning to night the dogs are there. Food is not a problem, because people provide food when they see the number “100”. They have become aware of the dogs job and feel they are safe.

The terrorist group gets this news and so they postpone their plan. The red alert is lifted. But I don’t stop. For me, every day it is a red alert. For some reason I feel that something is going to happen in the near future.

And finally it happens. One of my dogs barks. Hearing this people start running, people call the police, and the bomb squad is able to defuse it successfully. Similarly, on the same day, my dogs are able to alert for seven powerful bombs in the city. People are safe now. The city is safe.

The government plans on investing in Dogs, and training them to safeguard human life from people with such evil intentions. Mumbai is now one of the safest places in India. No terrorist can ever dare to spoil the calm of this city.

Thank you.

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