Dog Lovers

Whenever I drove past the Gopabandhu Memorial Hall,I did remember to take a glance at the arched entrance to the hall. I mostly attended literature and writing seminars. I love listening to people and also copy and store in memory what they say and how they say it for my future use. I believe the intended use of language can accurately convey the exact mood and facial expression of the speaker in a story.  

Today I was astonished to see something totally different from what I usually saw. I located a banner located a banner bearing the 

words:"Dog Lovers from China. " I was shocked and wondered a bit. I decided to come and see what the dog lovers from China were going to tell us. My opinion I thought was prejudiced.  

In the evening,I entered the Gopabandhu Memorial Hall and was lucky to get a seat. There were six Chinese people two of whom were women. The programme started at the scheduled time. I had watched a large number of videos on what the Chinese loved to eat and had developed a strong dislike for them. I was sure the Chinese could eat every living creature. I had seen them munching live scorpions and snakes. Eating raw meat in China appeared common. I had asked myself time and again:"Are there no Chinese men and women who've love animals like people elsewhere?"

I can't remember the names of all of them but I can never forget Zhang Wei and his wife Wang Fang. An Odia gentleman introduced Wang Fang to the audience. He lavished his love and appreciation on the couple and told us he himself was a dog lover and animal rights activist. I guessed all the people in the hall were dog lovers.  

I had no idea so many people in my city were lovers of animals.

Wang Fang was dressed in red and excepting her facial shape,she was a westerner in her appearance, ideology and behaviour. Wang Fang came onstage and began her speech as follows:Good afternoon everybody. I have alread been introduced to you. Now let me tell you why I have dedicated my time and energy to the wellbeing of poor street dogs in the countries other than China. I had a pet years ago. It was an ordinary breed and I called the pet Chong. Once I was ill and my husband was away on business. Someone stole the pet and I later I knew it was killed and eaten by my neighbours. . . "She broke into sobs and couldn't speak for a few minutes. Her husband wiped her tears with his handkerchief.  

She resumed:"Animals and birds have every right to live freely and man has no right to kill them. This is because man can't create them. Man is the most dangerous animal on earth. His extreme greed and lack of sense are going to spell an all-devouring disaster for mankind. Our lust for eating them is so intense that we hardly bother about the terror and pain the poor dumb creatures have to experience. Some are so callous and insensitive that they even take great pleasure in inflicting extreme cruelties on them. Even when they have done nothing to provoke us,we come forward to bully them. In my own country I saw too much suffering of birds and animals. I appeal to the dog lovers of your city to get united and take stringent action against the offenders. " Then the beautiful lady Wang Fang told us how she had nursed a street dog in Kolkata back to health after it was run over by a car. She also related some other cases of torture of dogs one of them being the case in Hyderabad of a man who had set fire to a bag containing six puppies.  

I had condemned China most vocally and hardly ever believed there was a single human being in China with a truly kind heart. I went back and narrated the story of my meeting with the Chinese people who were dedicated to the wellbeing of dogs. My wife who considered me a poor judge of

men and women said:"Your views are most often one-sided. There are good people everywhere,only you have to find them. The next morning my wife showed me a photo in an Odia paper. Wang Fang was feeding a mangy dog in the photo. I was adoring her and her husband secretly. I also thought of the great Chinese philosophers like LaoTzu,Confucius,

Mencius,Mozi,Wang Fu and such others. I recalled a beautiful Chinese saying:"Don't do to others what you would not like to be done to others. " My wife reminded another:"Water is so soft that there is nothing like it,yet it retains the ability to wear away hard stones. " I had Wang Fang's number. After breakfast I decided to call her and solicit about their fooding and accommodation in my city. Zhang Wei and his wife were very loving and always bubbled with humour and laughter.  

After a long discussion about our respective families,Wang Fang told my wife about their problem of accomodation in the city. They badly needed to rent a house. My wife said to her,"Don't worry. . . Our ground floor is going to be vacated. You can occupy it in two or three days. "

I was puzzled. "What is wrong with you . . ?They are foreigners. They deserve our hospitality and good behaviour. "

"But you didn't talk to her about the advance house rent of sixteen thousand rupees for two months?"I said.  

"They will pay. . Let them come and inspect the house. Then we'll discuss the issue. " She was happy to have a neighbour downstairs. Julie the chemistry teacher who was our tenant was shifting to Chandrasekharpur as she had got a job with the DAV Public School there. She was talkative and so my wife loved her. Her shift to another distant place had disappointed them both equally. My wife is fluent in English. Wang Fang also appeared to have mastered the English language.  

As they came and began to live downstairs,we became very good friends despite our significant differences. Zhang Wei's books filled half the space in their house. I naturally developed a great love for the company of the Chinese gentleman. He and I became very close friends. His wife knew how to make the best tea and coffee I had scarcely tasted in my lifetime. The couple highly appreciated my literary accomplishments. Their affability impressed us as nicely as it did the other people in the locality. Everybody knew them as dog lovers from China.

We knew the Chinese people ate very strange and unusual things and insects. However,Zhang Wei and Wang Fang were exactly like us. They ate chicken,mutton and sometimes pork only occasionally. My wife would give them what she cooked. Wang Fang learnt cooking fish and meat the Indian way. We often went sightseeing all in a group together. They had a BMW. Zhang Wei himself drove us to different tourist destinations in Odisha.  

They had large kennels built for the stray dogs in the city and frequently figured in TV and newspaper interviews. Some opposition political leaders staunchly supported their noble work.  

Two years passed and my wife was extremely unhappy and disappointed to know that Wang Fang was leaving for China. She was going to lose a valued friend. Wang Fang assured her that they would remain in touch via social media.  

The day the Chinese couple wanted to pack for their flight to Beijing was stormy. In the evening it rained most abundantly. At that time I was reading Sai Satcharitra and counting the beads of a rosary. My wife was blubbering about Wang Fang whom she called 'Sister. ' As it was going to be the last occasion to entertain them,my wife baked a big cake and gifted it to them.  

When I was in intense sleep,my wife hurried me awake and told me to go downstairs. I thought our tenants were leaving for ever. On reaching downstairs I froze. There were some police officers shouting outrageous questions at them. Some three or four neighbours were watching the goings-on. Zhang Wei and Wang Fang were with their bowed heads. As I peep into their dining room I saw a dog in a pool of blood. It was alive but its head was bleeding. Ramakant Sahoo,the headmaster who had retired from Municipal Corporation High School that year was shouting hoarse at the Chinese couple. I came to know that the dog that was bleeding belonged to Mr Sahoo. It was an Alsatian Shepherd. It had been missing for three days. The old gentleman had told us all about his pet.

A tall police officer asked them gruffly:"You wanted the dog's meat,but why did you torture it so cruelly. . ?What is the reason. . ?" Zhang Wei was silent. A lady police officer slapped Fang Wang's cheek and she said:"If an animal is tortured before its killing,its blood spreads to all parts of the body and the meat tastes good. "

Mr Sahoo's dog Moti was brought out of the room. Its three legs were fractured and an eye was severely damaged. Mr Sahoo wailed like a woman because Moti was his only companion in life.  

Later we came to know that Zhang Wei and Wang Fang used to receive huge amounts of money from abroad particularly from the western countries for the maintenance and care of dogs. They were members of a global dog lovers society. They were doing apparently to get foreign funding and popularity as dog lovers. Both of them were arrested and went to jail.

After about a month,my wife and I were in our vegetable garden at the back of the house. There was huge plastic drum at a corner of the garden. It was an unused dry dug well which we had covered with concrete slabs. We had employed two labourers to fill it with soil and sand. An astrologer had advised us to do so. After removing the stone slabs,the labourers found a great number of bones and skeletons.

A hairdresser named Tapas who was living close to us was behind the scenes. He had been observing them for a long time and was keeping an eye on them.  

That dreadful night he was watching a film on television when it was quite late. He had heard strange sounds coming from our ground floor. He had climbed a neem tree at night to have a look through the skylight at what was going on inside. He recognised Mr Sahoo's dog and then called the police. Tapas turned into a hero overnight. .