Backstreet dogs

The auto stopped near my lane. I got off, paid him off and started walking towards my house. It was quite late. The movie was too long. I removed my watch and slipped it into my pocket. It's an unsafe world. Who knows when I might get mugged. My ears were alert and my eyes were roving around as I walked. Suddenly I felt as if someone was walking behind me. Its never a good feeling when you think someone is following you. I continued to walk without looking back. Then I felt some movement just behind me. A chill ran down my spine. My house was still a good 100 meters away. Should I run? Should I turn behind and face him? My mind was in confusion. Then I slowly turned around and stared into those bloodshot eyes. They stared back at me. For a few seconds we just stood there staring at each other. I knew I was no match for him. It would be wise to run, but that was futile. I was trapped. Money, cellphone, watch were not things he wanted. Perhaps he would be satisfied by my blood or a peice of my flesh. Maybe I was dinner for him. I bent down, picked up a stone and swung my arm as if throwing the stone. He immedietly backed off and started barking, his teeth glistening in the moonlight. Then from nowhere 5-10 dogs started barking with him in tandem and I heard all of them running towards us. So the entire gang was coming and I was alone. I swung my arm again, this time more menacingly and started running towards my house. As I ran I looked over my shoulder to see the entire gang of dogs chasing me. This was life. The hunter was the hunted today.

It's not that I hate dogs, I just dont adore them. And I cant be blamed, because of incidents like the one above, which have happened to me on several occasions. I have been chased all my life, not by girls (unfortunately), but by dogs. They used to chase me when I used to go to school on my cycle. Early in the morning I had to zip past them, but somehow they would know and they would take the trouble of waking up from their sweet sleep and chasing me for some distance. What did they get out of it? I never came to know. I used to go for tutions. As soon as I entered the house, their dog would come running, stick his tongue out and start wagging his tail. When I sat down on the chair, he would come and start licking me. And I couldnt even swear at him in the presence of my teacher. Once I got very fitness concious and joined a gym (I know ppl like me dont look good in the gym). I used to wake up at 5am, get ready and walk to the gym. It used to be pitch dark outside, the whole world would besleeping, except for my friends, the dogs. They used to start barking the moment I passed them. Then all the neighbothood dogs joined in the fun. There were times when I had to turn back and return home running. But I consoled myself saying that running was excercise too.

But when I go back in time, I know for a fact that I liked dogs. I have some childhood pictures to prove that. I never had a pet dog, but I was friendly with the dogs in the neighbourhood. One particular black one (whom we called kaalu) used to almost stay in our courtyard. I would feed it peices of bread, buiscuits or even milk sometimes. Then one day he disappeared. I never saw him again. Occasionally me and my friends used to pick puppies and bring them to our house. We would play around and feed them. Ofcourse I wasn't allowed to bring those dogs inside the house because they would dirty the house. Somewhere down the line, I lost interest in dogs (I suppose) but they gained interest in me, and thats probably why they chase me wherever I go. Today, I love dogs. I dont mind having a dog at home. Infact I wouldn't mind having 2 dogs at home. But they should be of the soft toy variety ;-)