The Watchman and his street dogs
I always nod my head and move away while doing some rough financial math. Never daring to ask a follow up question though. Assuming each pack costs about 10 rupees, that's fifty rupees a day. Fifteen hundred a month. I know these guys don't get paid more than about twelve thousand a month. So that's a good 10% of a very small monthly income.
He works as a Watchman at a medium sized complex. His duty falls sometimes at night and sometimes during the day. A portly young man of around 30 years of age, maybe. Wears a large Tilak on his forehead and patka around his head depending on the season and his duty timings.
He feeds a good number of stray street dogs every morning or night. As if like a ritual. The dogs know the time when he will be ready to feed them. Mostly just before he packs up from his duty and is homebound on an old bicycle.
The dogs come to him or just laze around the place where they know he will come with biscuits. He has a small locker inside the building where he keeps the biscuit packets. He comes out with a handful and distributes them equally among the dogs. Depending on the number of dogs, he makes multiple trips to the locker. I always wonder about the number of packs of biscuits he keeps in that locker. He never runs out of stock. There is always one more packet left if one of the dogs decides to bring some friends along.
The most beautiful thing is how the dogs behave during this entire breakfast or dinner ceremony. They don't necessarily run behind him or crowd around him. Some that are hungry run towards him when he comes out with a handful of biscuits. Others just lie around knowing fully well that they will not be denied of their fair share. And to the man's credit, he looks for the dogs that are lying about and goes to them to feed. He seem to acknowledge their right to get pampered.
And when all the dogs are fed, they start to disperse to guard the streets of which they are the master watchdogs. The Watchman then walks away non-chalantly, unlocks his bicycle and rides away.
The Watchman and the watchdogs. Maybe they are united by their common goal of being watchful. Maybe the Watchman depends on the watchdogs to help him with his duty during the night when he steals a nap. Maybe there is something else. Or maybe there is nothing. I always think of going and speaking to the Watchman. Just a casual chat about what makes him do what he does. But then I always choose not to dare. What if there is a vested interest? What if the guy is paid by someone to feed the dogs? What if that someone has some diabolical plan to undermine someone at the municipality by helping grow the street dog population? Human mind can devise the most cunning plans. Why spoil a beautiful sight, that helps me believe in universal oneness and God, by seeking to find the truth?
Maybe it is just a bunch of beings that learned to live together by forgetting their fundamental differences. Is that not beautiful enough? Transcendental, even?
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