Sheru - Story of our Dog

As a 10-year-old kid, I always wanted to have a dog. I used to convince my mother for that. One evening we were in the market for buying grocery. I was looking aimlessly here and there. Suddenly, I saw a puppy at the side of the street playing alone with a torn old newspaper. I went close and picked him up. He was brown in colour with white patches on his belly. His beautiful black eyes were looking deep into me. I carried him in excitement to my mother and showed her. It wasn't easy to convince her to get the puppy home. So I had an oath ceremony in the middle of the market promising my mother everything about my resonsibilities and duties towards the dog, my studies, housework and my overall mannerisms. I finally got the dog. We named him Sheru. He became part of our family and we treated him just like a member of the family. Our small bungalow was his playground without any restrictions into any room. Every morning he would come to wake me up by pulling my blanket and jumping on me. What a fantastic start of the day!

We would take him for a walk around our home. He was very sharp and aggressive when it came to recognising any threat. One dog is honest & trustworthy enough than 5 security guards. He gave us not just love but safety too. We celebrated many festivals together with him. He stayed with us in good and bad times. When you know someone is an integral part of your life, it is hard to imagine their absence. One evening we realised that Sheru was not in the house. We came out to see the main gate was open. Maybe someone forgot to latch the gate. We went out calling him, searching in all directions. It was getting dark and there was no sign of Sheru. I was crying and shouting his name. I was imagining how far he must have gone, maybe he forgot his way back home, maybe he got in a fight with some street dogs. We all were devastated by this situation. After searching for hours we came home empty-handed without Sheru. The feeling of someone you love disappearing was way worst than they dying. Because you know they are alive and somewhere in the world away from you, don't know in what situation. I never felt my home so empty. A big part of our life got disappeared without any notice. We kept searching for him everywhere for the next 3 months when we finally gave up and accepted reality. He was always in my memories. 

After 1 year, one evening I heard a knock on our main gate. So I went out to find Sheru standing at the gate. I shouted Sheruuuuu with a big surprise. My mother came out to see what happened. Tears were flowing like a river. I opened the gate and we went out to hug him. I could see how happy he was to see us. His bubbly nature was grown into a more grounded, calm & deep being. When we tried to took him into the house he started resisting as if he did not want to come in and he was just visiting to see us. After trying a lot we realised that there was no way you can force someone. We just stood there to see him walk away to disappear into the streets again. After that incident, I would sometime spot him near our home. He would come running to me whenever he used to see me. Later on, he started coming to our home more often. Sometimes just sitting outside, sometimes knocking the gate to see us, sometimes we would find him in wounds from dog fights. We would put medicine on it. We always tried to give him food. But he never ate. His visits were purely out of love asking nothing in return, not even food. 

I realised, he was not born to get confined into a house no matter how much love he got there. And why do we want to confine someone into a relationship when they want to explore their life? When someone shows enough courage to move out why do we tag them with betrayal, untrustworthiness and unfaithfulness? We reject their love in return and make them feel guilty. I felt blessed for the time we shared with Sheru. It's been more than 20 years now I haven't seen him. He disappeared into the streets from where I had picked him up. 

If Love had a face, it would look like Sheru.