Love Thy Animals

But a decade ago,our lives were ripped apart and everything changed. My beloved friend M fell ill. Very ill. With a life-threatening,life-changing sickness. Something that alters your very being. And yet M emerged from it stronger,braver. An even better person. That’s when I realised while we may have had a lot in common,M was the better (wo)man. Everything went wrong and yet even as she was careening downhill,my best refused to quit. As adversity multiplied,her courage and grit would rev into top gear. I could devote this entire column to her but I still would not have enough words to do her courage justice. Which is why it breaks my heart to write further. Recently,a chain of events nearly broke her indomitable spirit. It had nothing to do with the passing away of her father. Instead,the blame falls squarely on the door of man’s innate affinity to be vindictive.

M loves animals. All animals. Even at her sickest,when her body would not listen to her brain,she would feed the strays in her colony. As a testament to her compassion,the area she lives in has the best-behaved dogs I have ever come across. But I don’t think I need to make a case for kindness to animals. It’s a well-documented fact that it’s a good thing to do. It’s equally telling if you are the kind of person who kicks defenceless animals or pulls the wings off flies. Books are written about your trail of death and destruction — and the only people who love you are psychiatrists. My last sentence is a bit extreme but if you too had witnessed the rampant viciousness M has been subjected to,you would find it hard to be polite. The devastation is contained in a tony south Delhi colony where M grew up. Largely populated by members of a displaced community,this area has several advantages. It is built around a beautiful old monument. It is flanked by a police colony. And all the residents are somehow related or known to each other. Sounds idyllic? Appearances are deceptive. In this colony,stray dogs are tortured.

Puppies are held hostage and mangled. And if you come in their way,you are molested. And tormented. Last month,M had to be rushed to AIIMS after she was hit with sticks and stones. Her crime: she was feeding the dogs of the colony. Pets that were inoculated and tagged. The president of the residents’ association — a very qualified and respected doctor — actively encourages this abuse.

My friend M is not alone. ­Recently,newspapers in Mumbai ­reported a similar story. A 20-something was battered for looking after her four-legged friends. No one paid heed to the piece because such reports have become commonplace. It makes me wonder: did we domesticate animals only to abuse them? And when they finally retaliate,we hit out at them,feeling wonderfully vindicated even though we started the fight in the first place.

There is a charming little item doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter that has a little boy rather matter-of-factly explaining why dogs don’t live as long as people. “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice,right?

The six-year-old continued,‘Well,dogs already know how to do that,so they don’t have to stay as long.’” I wish I could recommend a fate worse than death for people who don’t learn from this beautiful sentence,but that would be just rude.

tothemannerborn@expressindia.com