Tomy


Here I say a close to heart true story of Friendship and Betrayal.

Tomy, our dog was my favorite. He was an ordinary Indian dog and not of any special breed but his off white color was nice and beautiful brown eyes, were full of soul that I fail to see even in Humans. It is almost, like we grew up together. When I returned home from school, as soon as I got down the bus at 3:00PM, I saw Tomy waiting for me near the main road and he would lead me home, almost every day. No matter where he was in an audible surrounding, he would run towards me if heard calling.

As a silent child, number of friends I had, were limited. I compensated them with Trees around my house on which I sat for hours, plants in my Garden which I nurtured and of course Tomy. At times, if Tomy would be busy with his friends and very rarely ignored me, I would get angry and taunt him by saying – So now you do not need me? I would not talk to him for some time but he kept following me.

Everything was nice, until one day a mad dog bit our neighbors dog Julie. Julie retrenched to a silent mode, which they say is one of the symptoms of the contagious disease. Tomy having spent most of his time with Julie was now feared to have the same disease. So the elders decided that Tomy must be killed along with Julie. Was this a wise decision? I don’t want to comment on that and at that age, I did not know a thing about decision making.

I do not recall, how I reacted to all this; did I know this was coming? What was I thinking? I recall none at this point but what happened next, remained with me forever.

One evening, two men from Municipality were invited home. After Julie, they came for Tomy. But Tomy active as ever, sensed the danger and began running in all directions. The two simply could not catch hold of him. At this point the elders asked for my help, they asked me to call Tomy and they knew he would not disobey my call. I did as told. The image is, me standing in the middle of dry paddy field and Tomy came running to me. The two men attacked him from the back and held him hostage in a sack. They carried him towards the end of the paddy field and disappeared behind the bushes. It is years later that I realized what a grave mistake I had done. I recall crying as I heard Tomy’s last cry at only one blow that was enough to end his life and our togetherness.

This scene haunted me for years, I never told this to anyone, not my family or friends. I felt guilty and may be this is the reason, I never had another dog. A small black dog that replaced Tomy did not stay with us for long. Whenever I see a dog today, all I can recall is this incident and it never allows me to love a dog as though I am undeserving.

Had I known then, what I know now, I would have stopped this from happening, taken him for medication or a checkup. If not anything else, I know one thing for sure today that the first line of this post needs to be corrected. Tomy was not my favourite, but I was Tomy’s favourite.

Comments

  1. This was so touching, Ajeya.
    Don't brood over it so much. Now that you have written it, the load must be lighter.

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  2. Indrani - Thanks...Yes, I felt much better when i decided to write about it.

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  3. im sooo sorry to read this post.
    tomy and you were loving each other.
    and whatever happened, love remains.
    so he should be grateful in heaven.
    you were such a quiet boy?!
    very cute ajeya rao chan...
    thanks for sharing such nice memories of friendship and love.

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  4. Ajeya,
    This is such a touching story, good that you wrote and shared about it. It definitely lightens the guilt feel.

    Yes, you were his favourite.

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  5. very moving ajeya..I agree with Indrani..glad you brought it out through the post...we all make mistakes and learn from them and I think the latter is more imp..

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  6. @Niki - Thanks...Yes was a quiet child. :-)

    @Cuckoo - True. Writing has helped me always.

    @Lakshmi - Very true.

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  7. This account moved me terribly!

    Don't be consumed by guilt so much, perhaps in a situation such as that, anyone would have done the same that you did!

    RIP Tomy!

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  8. Rakesh - Thanks...True!

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  9. bendtehrulzApril 21, 2009

    Hey buddy - beautiful story and dont be so hard on yourself. By sharing you have also shown courage, so many times we do things which later when we think , might not make us proud-but admitting them needs courage.

    I feel you should get a dog - you will be healed again !!! You need Tomy 2 in life...!

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  10. BendtheRulz - Thanks...Sure I should...and I will someday for sure.

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  11. Bendtherulz...Please start blogging again!

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  12. Poignant post. In those days Ajeya, I do not think there were proper guidelines to follow concerning putting an end to a pet's life. And you were so young.

    So I think you are not at fault. It's good that you vented your feelings out. Cheer up.

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  13. Celina - I strongly agree to your point on lack of guidlines during those days. Thanks

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  14. Dogs have amazing sense of danger approaching.

    I remember Ruby that used to guard apartment used to disappear when that van approaches the area. In his presence no robbery had taken in that area.

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  15. Really nice ,Ajey.Reminded me of the incident,which happened in our childhood.Beautifully written!

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  16. Rajesh - True.

    Dhanji - Thanks

    Anu - Yes. To me, it had always stayed along.

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  17. Very touching....the emotions were visible in your writing even after so many years.

    You should remember the love from that age more than the unfortunate incident and adopt another dog.

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  18. Thanks Vamsee...I will adpot another dog one day. The one that will look exactly like my Tomy.

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  19. I know.Hoping to see more such blogs from u ,so I could recollect my childhood!

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  20. Ajeya-

    very poignant write up from the heart, am sure someday you will adopt another dog like Tomy.

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  21. Nicely written! You can always say that you obeyed your elders. But there are two sides to a coin, as always..

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  22. AnonymousJune 03, 2009

    this is my first time here...and i was touched by your article. i had 3 dogs and with the loss of each one i was terribly disturbed. you must be holding on to the sense of guilt...i hope you are through it now.

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