The
place was named after an ideal, the city of heaven, Swargapuri. The city had all the knowledge since times
immemorial, enshrined in the books of knowledge composed more than five
thousand years ago. But most of its
people had not seen proper clothes on their bodies till at least 100 years
ago. Knowledge has its uses, which are
mostly cerebral and it is not meant for ordinary matters or mortals. It speaks about and speaks for immortals and
the ways that ennoble humankind to become immortals. The city had all the facilities that an ideal
heaven should have possessed for heaven is modeled on the aspirations of human
beings. Beautiful buildings, houses
fully air-conditioned, broad and tree-lined avenues, Hospitals equipped with all
the up to date medical facilities, manicured landscapes, parks and resorts etc
not without heavenly beauties. Heaven
cannot be heaven unless there is hell within it. Every
now and then, prisoners from hell would land wrongly in heaven to cause trouble
since they perceived that the citizens of heaven were wrongly housed there and
occasionally, citizens of heaven excluded, isolated and expelled the fugitive
prisoners from hell and restored peace in heaven. There has always been Viswamitra and Trishanku
on one side and Indra and others on the opposite side or for that matter Satan
and God, to make things equally unpalatable for all religions.
There
was one nuisance from hell that came to heaven.
The lowly, street dogs. If
street dogs had their dreams of ideal life what would it be? Would it be like human-imagined heaven? Or a
different, and necessarily a dogly heaven? Since we are human, he can only imagine a
heaven where all secret human desires (and not that of dogs,) are fulfilled. Since
humans and dogs have been living harmoniously for over 10,000 years dreams of
human beings are dogs’ dreams too. Thus
they came to heaven from hell. There would
have been celebrations if the citizens of heaven had occasions to welcome only
dogs of high breed for the good things they did in earth. But the dogs came from hell, the permanent and
only residence of sinners. These were
street dogs which committed many sins on earth, had long snouts, ugly, unclean,
without proper upbringing and had to be condemned,. City of heaven was full of high breed dogs, of
course they are not ‘dogs’ in the first place,
but had to be called for our convenience. Street dogs from hell suddenly appeared from
nowhere. They might have bribed their way through gates of heaven. Everybody in heaven discounted the idea that
some of the high breed pets could have indulged and exercised their freedom of
love, without the knowledge of their owners. For, there cannot be freedom of
love and the pleasure from it, if it is known to everybody. The orphan and
interbred dogs had features of so many breeds that they looked neitherthis or
that breed and the citizens knew this. It
was also against the principles of Heaven to accept that there were instances
of infidelity among the dogs. The first
law of governance is that if something unlawful happens, it should be promptly
denied at first, and later and if necessary, defended on the basis of faith,
belief and circumstances. Principles are
principles, you see and administrations cannot function without them. Citizens of heaven had the firm belief that
the rebels from hell had planted street dogs in order to disturb peace and
tranquility. The street dog population
increased without any control, for street dogs do not have any rules of love
laid down by the dog culture prevalent in heaven. Every locality in the city faced the menace
of street dogs. The word ‘menace’ was
used by the Press, TV channels that were owned by the rich and elite. Their pet canines have individual names for
they are not like street dogs. The
owners also know who their parents were. The sellers had maintained the genealogy of
the pets they sold. Everything about
dogs was perfect until now.
Though
the word ‘caste’ was not used for dogs, subtle words like ‘community’, ‘long
snouted’ ‘free meal’ (since street dogs eat whatever is available on the
streets) were used. A campaign was started in the media to finish the ‘menace’
of street dogs. The street dogs, the
articles and news analyses and documentaries showed, were ferocious, lunatic,
angry with humans and hungry for food. If
not controlled and expelled, they would be biting infants at first, children
and adults thereafter graduating up to the level of man-eaters of Kumaon. Often photographs and videos of street dogs
were shown but there was no evidence of mad dogs except one or two. They also had tasted human flesh. Not to let
the opportunities to go, human beings had nicely shown elements of their stone-age
culture to the street dogs and they had to defend themselves. But the media, where truth alone triumphs
(and nowhere else) raised doubts about street dogs. Even if they were attacked, they should have
gone to the police. What was unsaid was
they would get additional bonus from police for reporting about the high class
human beings. How dogs can dare file an
FIR about human beings? It is also not
true that media reports are like buffet tables where hundreds of food items are
spread and the guests would forget to eat most of the better preparations and
end up eating the worst, not knowing when to eat what. Similarly, you can choose in the media
reports the truth you want to make use of.
TVs
started raining programmes on the adverse impacts of the street dogs roaming
hungry with their families. Sooner than
later, they would outnumber the human beings.
While these things were taken for granted, there was commendable
decrease in the street dogs on certain months or years, the reasons for which
can only be attributed to the blessings of invisible gods than the targeted
violence unleashed by municipality.
However, the majority opinion was that street dog population was
increasing and everybody, if not city council or its head, should take
action. One day Mayor of the city was called
for an interview in one channel and followed by interviews of officials,
politicians, Ministers in other channels, and one channel achieved greatness by
interviewing the President himself.
After
grand consultations across party-lines, discussions with doctors, sociologists,
came the announcements of grand decisions of the City government. ‘Government
was aware of the problems created by street dogs from hell. It has framed immediate, intermediate and
long term solution to this problem. The policy is that the street dogs are a
menace and it is desirable that they do not exist and therefore to be
eliminated. And there are different ways
of doing it with the active cooperation of the public. Since the city has been following the noble
ideals of non violence, we can prescribe violence with a humane face. For those who do not understand it is like
this. If we know that girls will be ill treated it is better if their life is
terminated surreptitiously, if feasible before birth and if necessary after
birth. Immediately, the activists of
‘protection of street dogs committee’ (no one knows how or when are they
formed), proclaimed the inalienable rights of the street dogs to exist and to procreate,
like other animals, monkeys or cows or a rats and that these dogs are not
violent or dangerous. They also pointed
out at the possibility that there was no way they could have come in such large
numbers from hell and that domesticated high breeds might have exercised their
freedom for love and the owners might have cruelly dumped the illegitimate
heirs to let them survive on the streets rather than killing them mercifully. Activists further insisted that the street
dogs should be treated like other pets and given vaccinations for diseases
including for madness.
Subsequently,
the city Mayor announced that the government would allot each of the street
dogs to a family as dogs have fulfilled the human needs for more than 10000
years and you cannot simply betray long standing companions simply because
there is shortage of sympathy. However,
all solutions need participation of the public.
It is for the individual household to either take care of the dogs or to
consign them to memory. Again, there
were protests from the elites that the street dogs would pollute the habits of
their pets. The dogs picked from the streets cannot be made to inter-act with,
let alone interbreed with the pets.
Others argued that humans should have pity on the lives of dogs. Despite all this, the scheme was written on
stones so that it is not forgotten easily.
But like all other good schemes, it was never implemented,.
One
great scientist proposed that genetically all the dogs are same and the
difference is only in the length of their snouts, limbs and tail and that if
street dogs are modified either genetically or surgically all will look same. Some others mentioned that the domesticated
pets obey commands in English, take food in plates unlike street dogs who
understand no language but read human emotions by reading faces. Also street dogs eat contaminated food and
follow their own code of love and that would infect the high breed dogs. Though
these things were not spoken about overtly, like all the cruel customs in
society which are followed like the ten commandments of god, owners of high
breed dogs ensured that their dogs were protected from the influences of street
dogs.
Government of the city of heaven announced another
scheme. There will be only one breed of
dogs, oh no, pets, in the city. The longer snouts and limbs etc. will be cut to
standard size of the high breed pets. All dogs should be in one colour and creed as
they could be identified as the citizens of the City of Heaven. There will be only one breed in the whole of
the city. They will be taught to obey only in one language in order to avoid
creating confusion in the communication among the dogs and their handlers. However, it was common knowledge that
communications were not only between handlers and dogs or from authorities to
dogs, but most of the time it was among dogs. The scheme also prescribed different codes for
different things including the ones for dress and hair, in addition to the one
for love. This is to enable inter
mingling of pets and street dogs. However,
to enable easy identification and to stop too much inter mingling, owners’
Mobile phone numbers can be etched in the earlobes of the dogs. The ideal remains that all dogs are created
equal. But differences are created on
earth by Men. There should be change in order to ensure that everything remains
the same. It is desirable that there is
no confusion either in the policy or in practice. Both must be different and preferably,
diametrically opposite. Those who want to follow policy can do so and those who
want to follow something else can do so.
All the sections of the people were happy since they have the freedom to
do whatever they want. They only exercised
only the freedom to do nothing. This is
democracy. The dissidents, as always,
disagreed and labelled the situation as rule of the jungle. After all, it is not necessary or easy to
find solutions to the problems. It is
easy to let them fester and they will find their own solutions as per the
theory of evolution. This is not only
the rule of jungle but also of human beings who are part of the largest jungle.
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