When Bobby came home

It was on 29. May 1994..It was summer vacations in school. The time of the year when all my cousins came down to Chennai. We lived in a two bedroom apartment on the third floor at that time. The colony i eventually spent 10 wonderful years of my childhood...Sneha Sadan.
Our house was always crowded during summer vacations. We were already three kids,mom, dad and grandmom. But summer vacation meant having fun with my cousins, aunts and uncles who used to come down to chennai from Trivandrum, Bangalore, Mumbai and Boston. The house used to be so crowded and noisy, when all the elders would catch up with the news of the year and for the kids it basically meant running up and down, playing games, fighting. We used to go for picnics to theme parks and to Marina beach. Food was always divided amongst all of us. Buying ice cream for one meant buying ice cream for all! That was the rule.

On that day, my dad was as usual sitting on his big sofa in corner of the hall, reading his newspaper in the morning. All the kids used to sleep in the hall in a row. It was late enough and my mom was shouting out for us kids of wake up and fold our bedsheets and roll our matresses so that the servant could sweep the hall. I didnt want to budge from my place...Well until my dad suddenly announced something from the paper. He read out that there were 4 German shepard pups for sale and asked, " Aashrita, shall we buy a pup for our home? ". I got up from my bed that instant and ran to him. I was so excited. I said," Yes, yes, we should buy a pup for our home..i always wanted a pup you know. Please pa, let us buy one". I saw a wicked smile on my dads face. My mom gave him the coldest stare. He told me, " I dont mind buying one you know. But your mom has to give the permission". I went begging to my mom. But she told "NO" in all the different ways she could. But i am a very very stubborn person. If i make up my mind for something, nothing can change it. My main goal at that moment was to convince my mom. I went about doing it. I remember all the promises i made that day..." Promise Ma, i will take the dog for walk everyday. i will take the responsibility of feeding it. I will bathe it regularly, take it to the doctor for injections, remove the ticks, also clean the house if it shits there. You dont have to do anything..I promise" ( Well as we all know, promises are meant to be broken :P ).

So finally we set out to Blue cross. After all the drama and rebellion from Mom, the consenses reached was that we will adopt an abandoned pup from Blue cross and i will have to take care of it for one year. If i do a good job at it, my dad will buy me a German shepard pup. A good deal, i thought. My uncle, aunt, little sister, dad and i dropped by Blue cross at Theosophical society to have a look at the pups there. I loved that place! They had many abandoned stray pups in cages with a cup of milk and a cup of water each. There were so many other animals also there. some injured birds, cats, squirrels etc. I was so excited to see them all. The doctor said that we could pick up a pup we liked from one of the cages. Oh my, they were all too cute..so small, cuddly and friendly..The pups were so excited to see us . They were jumping in the cages, trying to reach out to us. I went the one of the cages where there were 4 pups. One of it had light eyes. I didnt like it too much. There were two pups jumping up and down and trying to lick me. I picked up one of it and told my dad," Lets take this one..it likes me a lot :)" . It was a female. My dad said, " see i already have 5 females at home. I dont have a male company. Let us get a male pup". The 4th pup in the cage was a male. It was there, sitting in the cage, not even bothered by our presence. He was more keen on getting his sleep. The guy picked him up and gave him in my hands and said that he was one month old. He was too cute. Black eyes giving a sad look and a jet black nose, the rest of the body was light brown. He was shivering as i held him.

We decided to take him home. I was the first to hold him. My little sister ( 4 years old at that time) was too scared to touch him. We took him home in the car. He remained there cuddled on my lap..still shivering because we were strangers to him. I carried him up the three floors like he was a baby in my hands. My mom opened the door and gave him and me a cold stare, said nothing and went inside..My cousins and my elder sister were scared of him...They ran from the house to the terrace, two of them also climbed the water tank and shouted from there! I took him to the terrace to introduce him to them. I left him down on the terrace floor. He was timid and small. He was shaking in his new environment and didnt understand what was going on around him. I still remember his first steps on the floor. He was an angel. My first dog and my first love!

I was very innocent as a child. I believed all the stories that was told to me. My aunt told me that only if you whisper the name of dog in its ears three times, he will remember it and respond when called so. She asked me," so what shall we name him?"...After a long discussion round amongst all of us..we finally decided on one name....BOBBY!.. I took the pup on my lap and sincerely followed what my aunt told me...I whispered "Bobby" into his ears three time.....Thats when Bobby entered our lives and became a part of our family. Today, he is 15 years old and still alive and very much a part of our lives. And 29th May 1994 is a day that is still imprinted on my memory like it was just yesterday!!