My friend Prasad from Sydney in Australia was chatting with me last night on Skype for quite some time. We had not spoken to each other for some time and there was a lot to catch up on.
While we were catching up, I espied something brown behind Prasad that looked suspiciously like a dog. I was surprised because, after the death of his pet and companion dog last year, about which I had posted,I was sure that he would not keep another pet. I asked Prasad if that was a dog and it turned out that it indeed it was. He then volunteered this touching story, which is a measure of my friend’s character as well as that of his lovely daughter Meera.
Some days ago, Prasad and Meera were driving along a major road in Sydney, when they saw a stray dog unable to cope with the traffic and being brushed by speeding cars. They decided to help the dog and maneuvered the car slowly to push the dog to the side of the road and Meera jumped out of the car and dragged the animal inside the car with her. They took the dog to the animal pound and left it there to be cared for by better hands.
After a few days Prasad went to check up on the dog’s condition when he was told that since no one was willing to adopt it, it would be put down soon. Prasad and Meera offered to adopt it and the pound arranged for all the pre adoption formalities including surgery etc, and Prasad brought the animal home a couple of weeks ago.
After bringing it home is when they discovered that there was something wrong with the dog’s vision and on taking him to the animal ophthalmologist, it was found that it had only one functioning eye and that too only with very limited vision. Since it was a genetic fault, there was nothing that could be done and so, the blind dog is now part of Prasad’s household.
I am often stumped for answers to some existential questions like, why this dog, why Prasad and why the whole sequence of events leading to its adoption by a caring family. Karma?