‘Tis has been a very odd year for many of u from what I have seen and what I hear. A lot has changed for most. And, alas one of the few things that made me feel at home in Tara too has changed. They say all good things must come to an end and one of the best of Tara, the era of my great valiant knight Dado Bhai too has finally come to an end.
Over the years many people have often asked me that how and why do I love Dado Bhai so much and if so, why did I not keep him at home! How could you not love him and his big brown eyes. If you knew him the way I did you wouldn’t ask me such a question, for he loved his freedom more than his food and to try and bind such a free spirit to the confines of a loving home would be to break its will.
If any one family or an individual would try and call him theirs or claim an ownership over this great canine personality, they were to insult him! For he was no ones and yet he was everyone’s. He had no one home and yet Tara was his home.
Dado touched all our hearts. He taught us how to care for an animal and taught us compassion. He too found his home in Tara just as all of us have
Dado always knew when one needed to be walked back home in the dark and he would only leave once you had entered the safety of your home. He knew he had to watch over the little ones each morning when they were to cross the road and wait for the school bus.
For over a decade that he had lived here he had celebrated every occasion and mourned ever loss with us. Each evening the badminton court wouldn’t be complete without Dado Bhai in the audience with a bark, growl or a tail wag thrown in at regular intervals to make his presence felt.
For years he guarded us from door to door salesmen and strays. And, yes he bit people, but after all he was just a Dog.
Many of you missed seeing him do his Dado dance for his adoptive mother Mini aunty, or how he would trot in a different way when he heard any of the members of the Dhingra family or when he saw Jo and knew she had got Paneer for him that day.
Dado wasn’t allowed to come to my door because of my beloved monster Dexter, but ever so often when Nani would step out of the house, Dado would walk up to say ‘hi’ to her. He was a gentleman after all.
Dado has been a good friend. He had heard of all our heartbreaks and every secret by quietly slipping into the place you’re and having a hushed conversation with your friends whether in person or on the phone.
Dado Bhai as I loved to call him would walk with me in the wee hours of the night across Tara when I couldn’t sleep in the night not to only to protect me but to keep me company. Every morning while I was at Tara, he would come to say good morning when I would step out for my first smoke of the day on the bench and have a chat.
I would sit for hours on end and talk to Dado Bhai about everything and anything and he always had patience and a ear for me. Whenever my friends asked they would ask the following “Hows Chikki, the cats, Dado Bhai and that monster Dexter.”, for my friends knew Dado Bhai and had been loved and snapped at by him.
I let you into a lesser known fact about him. He not only had a great social life in terms of hi huge family in Tara, but not many of you know he had steady girlfriend. For those of you who frequent the Alaknanda Market you may have noticed a brown coloured stray with a pleasant countenance roaming around. Well her name is ‘Billi’, she and Dado Bhai have been an ‘item’ for many years.
Many a nights you would have found Billi having sneaked into Tara ‘running around the trees’ with him. He would often go to see her in the market and fight with other dogs. But when he became old and sick, she used come to see him and sit with him the night.
Several people called and messaged me to tell me he had gone but somehow I am not sad. I am not sad because the last two years hadn’t been easy for him and suddenly he had aged. He wasn’t happy and he wasn’t loved that much anymore by some who used to love before.
But what saddens me is that with the death if Dado Bhai, the era of the old dogs of Tara too has ended. It all began with the death of our beloved dumb Doberman Brutus and then went our fiery little Tanya. Cuddles, the silent Dacshund who often hear Dado’s problems too went and then went the cute, over excited friend of Dado’s, the loving Simba.
Finally came the time just 2 months before his death for his last friend and sometimes companion my beloved Chikki to go too. His bond with Chikki was very odd. When Chikki had her heart attacks she wasn’t allowed to climb stairs and so Dado would come down to walk and talk with her. He would often wait for her and she would treat him like shit. Their relationship reminded me of the poets of the Victorian era and the whole concept of the courtly love tradition.
So I am not sad that he has gone, for he had become lonely and all his friends had left. All of us too had become busy with our work lives and the time we had for Dado had come down drastically. He felt lonely.
At the end all I wish for is that may his soul rest in peace in the midst of bones, paneer and milk in doggy heaven surrounded by his friends. All i request you to do is not to remember him for the bad things but remember him for the love and concern he bestowed on us.
