Jani

I donno why out of the blue, I was reminded of my building dog(back in India) , Jani. He was the dog me n my bro never had (yeah yeah... like all kids, me n my bro wanted a doggie... and like all families, we had Amma who made these cliche dialogues like 'Onnu naan irupen indha aathila.. illa nai irukum' - translated as 'Either I stay in the house or the dog does'. It was one of those choices which really wasnt one! It just sounded like one.. hehe.. not that i cud ever trade my mom for anything...) Coming back to Jani, out of fondness we used to call him 'Jon' or 'Janet'.. hehe.. And he was my partner-in-crime for the many things I've done (notably, he used to eat my lunch - which I could never eat by myself - I mean my mom n Patti used to pack 3 huge chapathis for lunch!)

Basically, how Jani came to live in our building is something none of us can place perfectly. But our previous watchman called Poongavanam (- funny name coz it translates into 'Garden' and there was the seductive Nirosha song called 'Oru poongavanam...') bought Jani alongwith him and since then theres been faithful feeders like us and importantly there were these Sri lankan folks who lived upstairs to us who practically adopted him... They fed him and looked after him and so he was almost their foster dog. Jani may have been a street dog, but he was definitely the most intelligent in their 'breed'. This Sri Lankan Patti used to go out every morning at some 8 am and get back around 4pm. Jani used to walk her to the bus stop... Thats not whats so great.. But what was was that he would walk to the bus stop at 4 to bring her back! It used to amaze me that he developed such loyalty in no time and that he knew to gauge time!!

Another time, when Appa, Bala and I went to Tirupathi. Jani bid us a cheerful goodbye. When we came back to our surprise, he barked his lungs out and didnt let us into the building! It took us a while to understand what was happening. Appa had gotten his head tonsured and Jani didnt recognize him!! The whole sight was soo funny that me n Bala were in ripples by the time we'd understood what was happening. Hilarious!

During Diwali, Jani gave us all this look of reproach and immense sadness. He hated crackers and the sudden sounds they produced and could be found curled up under the staircase his paws around his ears... Pitiful sight... But I love crackers and I couldnt help it! (Hehehe)

Eventually, about 4 years ago, the Sri Lankan family moved and they were soo attached to Jani, they took him along. Last I heard, he was happy and well-fed with the family he loved most. Not many street dogs get as lucky as Jani.. For example, we had this dog in my building in Bombay, 'Vrandavan', called Soni.. It had a pathetic life and when I was very young, my dad made me cry by telling me that Soni had been electrocuted by the municipality! I dont know what happened to Soni and sometimes, I dont want to.. Somethings are best left unknown....