Man’s Best Friend

Friends, here is a short story on human compassion for dogs. Thanks.

Ravi loved animals. He was a student in the first year of a residential college of engineering in the town of Kanpur. He was a tall, dusky and lanky youth with a thick mop of hair. His love for the animals was evident in the care with which he fed birds and squirrels in the morning before his classes began at 8 am.

When he came back to his hostel for his lunch at 1 pm, he always found a trio of dogs eagerly waiting for him at the hostel gate. These were stray dogs who used to roam about on the college campus and did not have anyone to feed them regularly. Till the time Ravi joined the college, they used to survive on morsels of food from here and there.

But now these three dogs were very happy as Ravi used to make provisions of milk and rice for them every day. Somehow, they instinctively knew that Ravi was a well-wisher. How they knew no one knew, but the fact was that they knew. Such amazing animal perceptions are among the mysteries of Mother Nature.

At night, once the collapsible gate of the hostel was locked, the dogs used to curl up and go to sleep right by the compound wall of the hostel. Many hostelers use to take objection to stray dogs staying so close to their hostel. This objection was shared by even Monty, the night watchman.

This venerable gentleman’s duty was to patrol the college roads all night. However, the reality was something different. After doing one or two rounds from 12 midnight, he used to lie down and comfortably go to sleep in his cabin. This was known to all, including the college administrator. However, Monty had been with the college since its inception three decades ago, and he had become a permanent fixture on the college campus.

Now it turned out that the above fact of Monty’s “watchmanship” was known to burglars as well. This made them bold to plan a daring burglary at the hostel. And this is exactly what happened on the night of the “Saturnalia.” It was the annual college festival lasting four days, and it ended on the last Sunday of February every year. This last day used to be given to all-night affairs of musical extravaganza. Such performances included both Western and Eastern genres: vocal as well as instrumental. On this night, almost 90% of the hostel students used to be away at the college ground, dancing to the groove of a popular heavy metal band.

A daring duo of burglars who knew about all this background information planned their burglary on this very night. Their target was the belongings of the hostel common room, such as TV, music system, Speakers etc This common room was on the ground floor and used to remain open all through the night; only its doors used to be closed from the outside without any locks.

Alas, the burglars had not reckoned with the new guards. They were the four-legged trio resting on the outside of the compound wall. No sooner did the burglar climb over the wall than this trio put up a tremendous amount of noise. It was as if they were intimating to the burglars, “you are not welcome here.”

Their combined shouting was so loud that it began to wake up the few students who were sleeping in their rooms and who had chosen not to attend the festival. As the lights came on in their rooms one by one. The burglars had no choice but to dump their plan and flee.

From that day onward, this stray dog trio became the hero of the hostel. And of course, the lion's share of credit went to Ravi. In fact, more students decided to emulate Ravi’s example and adopt his chosen ideal of compassion towards all.

What a beautiful change it was!