Slumdog Millionaire
Today is 5th December. Windy morning. We just have our tea in pleasant sunny weather. Just then, my daughter hugs me from behind and say in her cute voice,” remember, today you will bring my Christmas gift “. Under the big umbrella of secularism, Durga puja, Christmas everything just got mixed up in the different communities. So today, every Bengali celebrates the month of December as the preparation of Christmas and the English new year celebration. Even our little seven-year daughter also feels this trend and gets excited. “yes darling, I remembered. This time I choose a beautiful dress for your darling, you will be delighted”, I replied with a smile.
After having our breakfast, we are on the way to the market. We are stopped at the red signal. Suddenly my daughter yells,” look at that Mummy, what a cute puppy!” There are 5–6 puppies are playing beside a tea stall by the roadside. Just then, signals are green. On the way back home after buying the Christmas gifts, we become the witness of the same scene. This time my girl is not ready to just leave. We have to get off the car after roadside parking. My little sweetheart gets afraid of stray dogs, always hide beside me. Surprisingly this time she just burst into joy. A child recognizes the child. On the other hand, hubby just picks up one on his lap. This puppy has a brown contrast on his white coloured body. Small cute little tail has three colour combination — brown, black and white. “Let’s bring this home”, said, hubby. My girl shouted in joy, “my best Christmas gift ever.”
There are thousands of stray dogs in India, they born on the road, grow up and die on the same road. But the most despairing, they are dying due to road accidents in the early age of their life. The birth control of stray dogs is as difficult as the population control in India. Recently some NGOs are working on that matter. They are conducting the sterilization process for the street dogs in different parts of the cities. There are also feeding program for those abandoned animals at regular intervals. Sometimes private concern has also been seen. If all of us try street dogs of our areas can live a better life.
Our new family member comes to his forever home. My little girl has named him Simba according to the famous cartoon series “Lion King”. To show our status we normally consider a breed dog as a pet, we normally consider a breed dog as a pet but neglect these desi cuties. They stay in dust and rubbish on the roadside. Never notice. Simba is too small, hardly one month old. He even can’t lick the whole milk by himself. It’s like a small cute furry ball is running through the whole house. Simba’s body colour is white with brown patches, the face is brown and small tail has a three-colour combination, brown, black and white, ears are hanging on either side of the face. My girl’s game mate (companion), my hubby’s stress reliever — our little adorable Simba.
We think he may be shy, but only for few days. Soon he shows up in the real picture. He starts destroying the plants one by one of my terrace garden. What a hostility with the plants! Nothing can stop him to destroy everything in the garden. He plays with my girl literally whole day, chasing birds on the terrace, also have to watch cartoons on tv sitting on the lap of his human sibling. Oh! So much to do in a day!