The Summer of 2005

It was august of 2005, that my family decided to spend summer vacation at my maternal grandparents village. The village was named "lakhrup", it was around 25 kms away from the place in city Patna, where we lived. In India, Summer vacation, is a time for gathering for each and every member of the family at one place, this time, that place was my grandparents place. We were supposed to leave the day after. Being very excited about the whole journey , I and my younger brother, packed all our clothes, toys in our respective school bags, yeah, we used to do it and those school bags used to have high importance for us. After we were done, we got called for dinner. There was our servant at the door, my dad was giving him some money, apparently his son was ill. He on the other hand was refusing to take it, however, my father put the money in his hand and told him to get his son treated.

Then, we had our dinner, and finally mother told one of my aunts was not coming this time, as her elder daughter had her board exams. I got very sad, I so wanted to meet her. Being the only two girls in our generation, we were adored by everyone and we used to spend a lot of time together. Nevertheless, I was excited, there will be a total of 6 children. I, my brother, and 4 cousins. I was very thrilled about the whole vacation thinking about fields, cricket, swings in the fields, market, everything.

I thought, thought and thought and after that I went to sleep.

The Arrival

Next day, we started off our journey, 8 in morning. After around 45 minutes, we had entered the outskirts of the village. The was a market at outskirts, just after the market, there was a small water passway, I guess that's what it is called, one has to take the bridge to get to the Village. Reaching market, we stopped there, to get some sweets, and vegetables. My mother reminded dad to get the electric mixer as asked by grandmother. My father left and we stayed in the car, looking at the market and being looked at by every passerby, I guess, in 2005's a personal vehicle used to be of importance in Indian Villages.

After a while, my father came back. He first looked at my brother, who had already slept during the journey, seeing that, he instructed me to help in opening the luggage carrier. I did so and we put the stuff there. After that we continued on our journey, passed the bridge and we were here, at my grandma's.

Both of my aunts were already at the door, I got so happy, they loved me so much. Along with them, my cousins were also there. I touched everyone's feet, well, that's a tradition in India. After a lot of talk and laughs, we retired to our respective rooms to get some rest.

It was already when I woke up, and tried to look for my mother. After getting refreshed, I came out of my room in the hall where everyone was already present. I guess it must be playtime, my cousins were going to play cricket in fields, we used to call it "khariyani". I also wanted to go, however, my aunts stopped me saying I might get hurt. My cousins left, and I got involved with my aunts, assisting them in kitchen. However, I couldn't help, but wanted to play with my cousins. I told my aunt that I was going to veranda to see the baby cow, she laughed and allowed. I washed my hands and moved out of kitchen.

The Incident

I turned to door, moving beside the table, I saw the newspaper with the headlines "Isn't Compassion all we need?", I couldn't understand the meaning of the word itself, nevertheless, I moved out the door and stepped in the direction of the veranda which was directly opposite our house. There was a small pathway connecting them, this same pathway was used by everyone else to go to their fields. As I was crossing, a big brown dog came from the right side of mine. It was very large, almost of same size as me, it looked at me and barked. I'm not sure what it was whether the bark or the ominous look in it's eyes, I got really scared and ran off towards the veranda. However, the veranda was wide open, that dog ran after me barking.

Veranda consisted of a wide space, where people could sit on chairs or put foldings, followed by cattles, cows, and buffaloes shed on the upper right corner of it. The lower corner was bounded by the adjacent house, and on the upper left corner, there was a little space left, from where one can move through and get to the connecting pathway towards other side on another road that went up to the market.

I ran, somehow. I was shouting profusely, more like shouting my lungs out hoping someone would listen and come to save me. I wanted to turn towards shed, but somehow my legs kept on moving on their own. I reached the upper left corner and through the small space, tried to run towards the connecting pathway. I was sure, there would be some people on the other side. However, just as I moved in the space, the dog bit my leg, I fell on the ground, with my eyes facing the ground, and the dog behind me. I didn't move for sometime, feeling the teeth sinking in my legs, at the same time being forcefully moved left, right by the dog. I kept holding to the grass, but I guess mostly realizing no one was coming, I tried turning my upper body, even though it started paining my stomach and legs, and hit the dog with my other leg. The hit landed on it's nose, it moved back a bit, and then, it looked into my eyes. I could see the dog grinding teeth, those teeth were very sharp and I somehow felt a very chilly sensation running through my body, it was as if all the sound got cancelled, just that dog and I was there, everything had gotten very slow. I was very scared.

Realizing this might be last moments of my life, I closed my eyes.

Nothing happened.

I was just too scared to open my eyes. I could feel my body temperature had risen and I was sweating, however, I didn't feel any bite.

I still couldn't open my eyes.

Then, I heard barks, I could make out as if more than one dog were fighting. A feeling knowing I wasn't alone, I opened my eyes and saw a white dog with black spots fighting the brown one. I could see my family members crossing the door and running towards me. I could see my father had picked up a stick. I could see my grandfather was running without his glasses. The brown one was trying to somehow get to me but the white one always jumped in, they bit each other, barked, but none of them were ready to leave their positions. The brown ran and jumped over the white one, with his teeth engraved in his neck. I stood up and tried to run to help, only to be be frozen midway as it's eyes looked at me. However, till that time, my father had reached, he hit the brown one with the stick, it shouted in pain and ran away.

I walked towards the white one. It stood up with tongue out of his mouth as if nothing happened. I smiled. I could just look at it's eyes.

Everyone gathered around me, my mother embraced me with all her might. My father was there with the stick, everyone looked very concerned but I couldn't help but just look at the dog, the dog which came out of nowhere and saved my life.

Take Away : The Knowledge and the Life

After we all reached home, my grandmother was tending to my wounds, with my crying mother beside me. I wasn't crying now but couldn't help asking grandmother about the dog. She told, it was our's only. They had adopted it a year back and it stayed in the cattle shed, and protected the veranda.

I was thinking, how the dog didn't even know but still help me. I guess seeing me getting attacked, the white one must have felt like coming to my rescue. I got to learn something from that dog, I guess, being a saviour to someone, help someone and being compassionate over everything.

I mean it was there everywhere, the very night we decided to come to village, my father was handing money to our servant, that was the act of compassion, the newspaper, that headline, that protest for the one seeking justice was an act of compassion, this dog, who out of nowhere came to save me, did it for nothing but out of compassion. Actually, now I see, each and every moment, from my mom tieing my hair, to my brother showing me his drawings, to my father getting me whatever I wanted was an act of compassion.

Now, I understand, that we can't live enough if we aren't compassionate towards each other, getting to know others, their lives, their perspectives enriches ours, and this whole process can only happen if we are compassionate towards each other.

That single incident, the single moment, the single act done by that dog made me think so much that day.

I'm so happy. They say that there is a lot of to learn from animals and that day, I learnt the act of compassion from my dog, yes, my dog, That dog become my companion for that summer. I spent all my time with the dog as my companion, running through fields, laughing, smiling, knowing it will protect me.

COMPASSION IS ALL WE NEED