All it took was one day,
One day to realize that I am whole on my own,
that life is too short to hold on to you.
All it took was one moment,
One moment to realize that I was like the oasis in your desert,
that you do not deserve me anymore for I am much more than what you see.
All it took was one word,
One word to realize my worth,
that my worthiness does not diminish on your inability to comprehend it.
Quite a queer topic to write a blog about, isn’t it? That’s what most people are going to think about reading the title of the blog. Keeping aside all these thoughts, I still want the world to know about my dog.
Well, to begin with, I am an ardent animal lover, a
cynophile to be more precise. I love to be around them whenever and wherever I
can . So I thought why not put my feelings to words. As the saying goes “A dog
is the only thing on Earth that loves you more than he loves himself” and I can
vouch for that. Without wasting any more time, let’s meet Sammy, our
protagonist.
It was a dark cold night. It was raining cats and dogs that
night. Hey, I don’t mean my species was falling off the cloud. Hope you get the
idiom . ;) All I was looking for was a place to take shelter. I was scared and
tired after roaming the streets with no food. No one was there on the road.
Then after 30 minutes I saw that an apartment gate was open. I breathed a sigh
of relief to have finally found a place where I could spend the night. I
managed to reach the second floor and was shivering because of the cold .I
slept on the verandah thinking how nice it would be if I get some food to eat
now. As I was in my slumber, I heard light footsteps. I woke up to see if there
is danger around. But it was my human(well she is my human now). She tiptoed
towards me and started patting my head. Her hands felt warm and it felt good.
After a while she went in and came back with 3 chappatis. Thank God , now my
stomach stopped growling. I went to deep sleep soon after.
The next morning, I woke up to the sight of my human. There were 2 other people along with her, looking
at me. Later I realized, they were my human’s parents. They seemed lovely so I
decided to stay with them and make them my family. And it is from there, my
story started.
My family consisted of four. My human had a brother . He was
terrified of me. It seems like he had a rough history with my kind. Later I got
to know that he was once bitten by a relative of mine and hence the fear of
dogs. I took it up as a challenge. I had to help him in letting go of this
fear. So I started playing my cards one by one and finally he fell for it. I
bet none can escape from the power of the puppy eyes. Duh!! Soon he became a
friend of mine as well. I used to wait for him to come back from office so that
he could give me treatos and pats. Parle-G was my favourite.
Days went by, I felt like I finally found my forever home. Mum used to give me food first before anybody
else. Rice- sambar was my favorite. My dad was the one who used to get me
treatos from shop. He seemed tough but I loved him. My human was nice too but
sometimes she used to annoy me by calling my name .She won’t let me sleep in
peace. Bro used to work hard but I waited for his pats .My life was amazing. I
used to eat , sleep and repeat. Humans must be jealous of my life. Well ,my
humans worked hard to give me a good life.
It was a clear bright autumn day, a Sunday. I was roaming in
my pavement. I saw him and it was love at first sight for us. His name was Rockie.
I went on 2-3 dates with him, before bringing him home to meet my fam. I was
scared to take him home .My human was easy to convince, she falls for every other
dog. I was concerned about my mum. But thankfully everyone accepted him and
soon we started living together at our “Home Sweet Home@2nd floor”.
With the passage of time , life had become peaceful. I loved
my family. Everything seemed serene. We grew old and on the day of May20, 2018
,I breathed my last. I would miss them a lot and I hoped that Rockie would take
care of them on my behalf. I lived my best possible life and I had no regrets.
That was the story of my lovely Sammy. I still miss her. I would
like to conclude this blog by saying “When in despair, sit with a dog. Your problems won’t bug you anymore.”
I still remember how the rays of the sun falling on the window panes, the chirping of the pigeons on the window still, the chants from a distant temple woke me up every morning. This place was my heaven on earth, a place where I did not have to worry about my tomorrows, a place where I gladly spent my holidays. This was indeed my secret escape spot, an escape from the busy city life in Bangalore.
I remember how she always used to be there, standing at the door, waiting for us (her grand kids) to come home. As soon as we entered the house, she would go to the kitchen and get us all the biscuits and sweets which she had obviously stacked ahead, from the day she knew we would be coming home. I remember her orange flavored Tank (juice) which she used to prepare for us, with the right amount of sugar, ice and tank powder .She was always happy when her grandchildren visited her and stayed with her for a few days.
It was in Feb 2018,
when suddenly, this beautiful world of mine came to an end. We received a call
at around 12 PM and the news that I dreaded the most, that she was no more...
All of a sudden, the chirping of the birds, the chants from the distance, the place made no sense anymore. I found no meaning in going back to that place again. The place, the sounds, nothing made sense to me without her. Only then did I realize that it was never about the house or the birds or the sounds, it had and was always about her...but I realized it a little too late and she was gone..Gone before I told her what she meant to me .Gone before I was ready to leave her.
I remember meeting my Aunt during my grandma's funeral..(My Aunt lived abroad)...Embarrassed to admit it,but it had been at least 10 years since we met each other.We used to meet when we were younger, but as we grew up we became BUSY..Ashamed to say it, but my grandmother's funeral was a reason for us to meet after such a long time...I remember talking to her and how we made plans to take efforts in meeting in the future and staying in touch...But little did I know that life had other plans for us...Little did I know that it was the last time I would meet her. A month later, she was diagnosed with leukemia and after bravely fighting with cancer for a month..she was gone...
When I suddenly lost two important people in my life, it cost me something. I felt an empty feeling...like someone took something away from me and the worst part was I was not ready for it....I felt unfair because life did not give me the chance of making our plans into reality but it was too late and I did not use the time that was given to me either. It took me to lose them to understand how much they meant to me.
As I pondered about it
later, I realized that the problem was not that I did not love them ..the problem
was,I wished that I had told them how much I loved them and how much even their
presence meant to me when they were there.I sometimes wish that I had hugged my
grand mom and told her how much I loved her or how much she meant to me...I
sometimes wish
I had made the efforts to meet my aunt more often so I at least would have had the good memories with her...that If I knew there was a time limit to this I would never have taken them for granted but life does not give us the deadline beforehand so I assumed they would be there in my tomorrows too hence I never felt the necessity.
It might be the same with many of us.We sometimes take our loved ones for granted only because we are so certain that they will be there tomorrow too.We sometimes don't feel it is necessary to spend time to talk to our friends or relatives and tell them how much we love them just because we are busy...busy preparing for our exams,busy with our work , busy completing our episodes in a series in Netflix,busy completing our levels in PUBG,too busy that we don't have time to sit down and ask them if they are alright or if they need some help, too busy that we forget to tell them that they are loved.
As I am growing up,I am realizing that ,only the moment what we have now, is ours. Our tomorrows are never in our hands but does that mean that we should live in fear about our future.No, what I mean to say is we should take hold of our today's,these moments,the only thing we can be sure of and use them..Use them to tell the people around us that we love them and make them feel that they are loved. Let us not end up making the mistake that I made but rather act up now because the truth is Time is ticking.
At a time like this,
where our future is even more uncertain, let us not waste it on unimportant things
rather let this blog be a reminder...a reminder to pick up our phones and call
or text those people and ask them how they are doing or just patiently listen
to what they have to say... tell them that you love them...maybe not because
they deserve it but because you know that they are worth it...and because they
matter to you.
Love – isn’t that a beautiful word? Isn’t
it a wonderful feeling when you are in love? All those butterflies fluttering
in your stomach…your pupil dilating when you see that special someone…your
eagerness to meet that one person…you wish that the hands of the clock stay
still and you get enraptured forever in that moment… Sounds
very romantic, right? If you are experiencing all the above, that means you are
falling in love or have already fallen in love. But here, the question arises
that -are these feelings constant??
I am going to talk about something which we
do not tend to discuss in open. It is called “Falling out of love”. I am sure
many of us experience this, but we do not speak up about this. Imagine being in
love with the person for whom you can go up till any extent just to see them
happy, but they just do not seem to give a damn about you. You are no more
special to them. You have just become a part of their life and they are living
with it. All those promises made at the budding stage of the relationship holds
no value now.
It is rightly said that things start to
lose their value once you have them. That person forgets about all the efforts
that they took to get you. In short, you are now taken for GRANTED. You tell
them about your wishes and desires but those really don’t hold any worth
anymore. Your wishes are rarely fulfilled and that can be very disheartening.
Cheating is not the only way you may lose
interest in your partner. Well, there are more. They are not paying attention
to what you say or feel, not being a good listener, not fulfilling the small
things that matters the most to you …you can lose affection for her/him
forever. We have to understand that everyone has a good day and a bad day and
all we really wish during those bad tiresome days, is someone holding us and
saying – “It’s going to be alright! We can overcome it together! .“
Life is not that difficult as much as we
make it. We complicate it by our inability to comprehend other’s problems. A
thing which can seem insignificant to you might mean a lot to your partner and
that’s when they show up and tell you about what is bothering them. And what do
you do in such a scenario? Instead of understanding, you shut your partner
down, you ignore their needs. You get involved in your own life. This can drift
your partner away from you. It affects their mental well-being. They start
questioning their self worth.
So what do you do when you feel that you
are falling out of love? Do you hold on to them or move on with your life? Love
is a difficult subject to fathom. You can give them chances and see if they try
to change themselves. If not, then it is time to call it off. You have to
retrench all that love within your heart for them. After all, YOU should be your first love, and no
one is more important than your own mental health.
