Knight is always running away. He is eleven months and some days old,furry black and has a tail that turns heads with its royal flourish. Knight is a proud pahari dog and he is my family. He loves us to bits; but he loves his 'azaadi' too. And so at the slightest chance, he runs away from his home. He spends the day and sometimes the night too, outside in the open, running unfettered and amok, with his mom Alu. Then when he feels the need for food or for love, he comes back home, wheedling his way inside by a few well executed what I call "bum salutes", a Knight special. The day he returns he spends wallowing in the coziness of our quilt, savouring his hot meals and the warm cuddles of his human family. And at these times, I find myself feeling that perhaps after this time he will never ever run away. But I am always wrong. Knight has this thing for 'azaadi', a hankering I cannot understand. Outside, all he has is cold and hunger and the viciousness of other stray dogs; inside, he has warmth, food and more importantly love. We've never ever put him on a leash inside and he has always had a free run of the house. I know that he relishes these comforts and I know also that he loves us unconditionally. Yet he runs away, again and again and again...back to that cold, wild outside, chasing after this elusive "azaadi" entity. This 'azaadi' gives him nothing, only cold and hunger and endless meanderings in the wild. I have finally concluded that this running away has only to do with some old, ingrained inherited habit and nothing at all with any desire for freedom as we know it.
And so these days, I find myself wondering: what if from now on I just left the home door open all day, for him to move in and out at will, without restraint, thus giving him his heart's desire, his 'azaadi'? Would he, as Richard Bach has decreed, come back to me; come back because in the end 'azaadi' or no 'azaadi', he is and will always be, mine?
PS: Do you, like me find a parallel of this curious case of Knight, Azaadi and Bach with the Kashmir issue?
(If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were. —Richard Bach.)
Lovely writing as always 😊,loved the description of Knight "An Azadi lover"......
ReplyDeleteThe freedom of Choice....even doomed ones, has always perplexed me. Probably, Knight knows it better. Cheers and God bless, Sanjeev
ReplyDeleteOur old one Snowy...didn't give up this running away habit. But Micky Didn't try though she could jump more that 10 feet and our boundary wall was about 5feet high
ReplyDeleteYou blended this event with Kashmir issue nicely 😊😊😊😊
DeleteThe art of converting even the smallest gestures into writing is inspiring.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Bach quote is quite similar to the one which Kahlil Gibran said "If you love somebody, let them go. For if they return they were always yours, and if they don't, they never were."
Simple words beautifully put together...
ReplyDeleteSome children go to school only for thr recess time freedom , all the living beings I feel at core are free spirited and knight surely is no different.
ReplyDeleteOnce again you have so deftly brought this instinct of freedom of all beings a subject to ponder through the playful nature of adorable Knight
Loved it as always