The Tiger's Hound- Part 28

The sound wasn't too loud. It didn't reach Sheru. Sheru stared at the fake tiger, still wondering what creature stayed so calm with people around. He had his first experience with tiger on that day where he had suddenly turned into village hero.

That tiger was huge and had big scary eyes. It was scared of one thing and that was humans. Here was a tiger which was different in terms of the way it looked and the way it was supposed to be. This tiger was small. It's eyes didn't have that " I am the tiger.. king of this jungle. You need to fear me!"

It sat peacefully while people smiled , trying best to conceal the hidden fact that Sheru would eventually find out. Sheru focused his eyes and his amazing doggy nose towards the tiger sitting few Angstrom away from it. It bore a smile on it's lip which was strange.

Which creature could sit so peacefully with a smile? Sheru knew that if he had to sit in front of many number of people, it would be frightened. He wouldn't even wag his tail or open his mouth with his tongue out. He would be scared than excited or happy. He would do what every creatures do. Run.. Find some place safe.

He searched for a scent. During first few minutes, he thought he had bad cold. He tried to sneeze and what he got was tiny sneezes. "Wait a minute! Was this animal in first place?", he thought. He had best nose amongst his friends and he could get scent from far off places. But why wasn't he able to make out this tiger's scent. As far as his memory, the tiger's scent was wild. This one didn't give any.

He concluded. Humans are stupid. They haven't understood the dog species clearly. Bringing in fake tiger wouldn't tell who was brave. They should bring in real one and then test their courage. Humans will be humans.. Proud and underestimating the smartness of other species. He walked towards the tiger and placed his paw on the fake tiger's paw with confidence, again maintaining his top dog spot.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 27

Ramlal finally did it. He found Sheru's weakness. Sheru could be easily distracted with any sound. He had seen that. Once large sound had almost made Sheru lose the game. He was supposed to fall from the balancing act because of it's being distracted from Sheru.

Sheru didn't fall. By then, Prasun had managed to keep him balancing the loop. Today wasn't eventful day for Prasun and Sheru. He had overslept and arrived late. Kimberly wasn't in good mood and unfortunately he got mouthful from her.

The training started with jogging around the ground followed with normal fetch game. Then Kimberly included a new exercise where a fake toy tiger was placed and how each dogs reacted was examined. This test was purely in order to understand whether they were ready to confront the real tigers in the zoo.

It wasn't easy test. Some dogs fared well unexpectedly while some failed. It was Sheru's turn. He was the black horse and impressed everyone with enthusiasim. But today wasn't his day. Ramlal made sure it wasn't his day.

Ramlal watched for a sharp object once Sheru was introduced to the tiger. Sheru was close enough to accomplish his task. He had shown remarkable courage to approach the fake tiger even though he was apprehensive due to his curiousity.

Ramlal had noticed something at last. He took out a pin from pocket of his shirt. He walked towards the electric pole which stood at the corner of the city. He hit the pin on the electric pole which gave shrill sound. 

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 26

The new beginning! It had already begun. Training were tough to make dogs stronger. The experienced dogs failed miserably which directly impacted their elimination or learning the lessons from the beginning.

But for Sheru, these training were like play. Running around field, climbing and jumping and role plays where Kimberly would be the fake tiger. He knew that the tiger wasn't real. However he did what he was told. Bark when he sees yellow with black stripes. Or chase if the danger still persists to stay.

With many dogs barking or chasing the tiger, the tiger would eventually wear down. Team spirit was taught to them with every activity. And Sheru enjoyed being with the other dogs. He felt lonely when he would be with his master.

Prasun was thinking about Sheru. For the first time, he was using personal pronoun to describe Sheru. What was wrong with him? He had never considered Sheru as being. He had always believed Sheru was just a thing he used to achieve his dream.

Sheru was a dog. He tried to put this fact in his mind. He couldn't. Whatever the fact was, Sheru and he were bounded on each other. He knew  without Sheru, he was nothing and vise versa for Sheru. The dog and he shared some strange bonding. Even though they hate each other. They seemed to not give up on each other.

Ramlal waited for his chance patiently. He watched for an opportunity. A chance was more than enough to bring the top dog - Sheru down. Until today, he wasn't confident about his plan. He had to keep it secretive to make it look more like Sheru's fault.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 25

Ramlal realized it too late. He had already created ruckus out of something tiny. It could have been avoided but he didn't want to. He dragged it until Shyam Babu intervened. He not only lost time. He lost the image he carried in front of  Shyam.

Shyam Babu reprimanded him about his behavior. He had also warned him about elimination from the contest. Ramlal didn't utter a word. He heard Shyam insulting him in front of everyone. He let him speak. If he fought Shyam, he knew the consequences. It was easy to fight against the people lower than one's rank than the higher rank persons.

He knew his time hadn't come yet. His conscious advised him to let the useless soul a.k.a Prasun enjoy his time. This time was going to be short time. He made sure it would be short term. For him, people like Prasun were like small creatures to be stamped and thrown.

Prasun felt a bit pride about himself. He had never expected Shyam Babu and others would take his side. He didn't know that good supporting people ever existed. He had read about them in books and heard about them in fair tales. But he didn't know they ever existed in real form. 

Maybe it was Sheru! The dog's arrival in his life had changed everything. The good times seemed to stay for longer time. But what if it was for short period? He didn't like the idea of short term happiness. It scares him when he losses.

He had seen failures too many yet he is afraid of them. He had not to gotten used to failures. He had almost lost hope and now when a new sun was rising, he didn't want to face darkness again. He didn't want to face the same life he had held back for the new beginning.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 24

Ramlal continued with his doses of pure insult. Prasun stayed put. He didn't want to indulge himself in fights that bear no results.

Prasun shifted his attention to his dog  and the training. He was used to people like Ramlal nagging about him. He didn't care.

The sun was up now. The birds were chirping. People had begun with their work. Some contenders had also arrived and they were busy watching Ramlal thrashing poor Prasun with words. No one offered to help.

Some people made fun while few pitied Prasun. But no one came up to help him. They didn't want to get into some trouble. They were afraid of getting involved with Ramlal. Ramlal was known for his power and anger.

It was dangerous to get on a wrong food with powerful guy in bad mood. They didn't want to loose their homes or source of living. They would rather stay quiet than fight for something right.

The outbursts went on. Ramlal wasn't tired. He didn't care that he wasted precious time on something unnecessary than on training his dog. It was ironical that he had come early to do something useful and ended up doing something foolish.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 23

Ramlal always felt that he was far superior than others. He had huge house due to inheritance and almost successful business. He didn't have to work hard because he always got the best of everything. Now he wanted to be part of the Tiger's watchdog plan. Fortunately he had the best dog in the village.

He didn't have to do much. His dog did all the work. He watched all the opportunities falling into his feet until he heard that Prasun's dog had also been selected. Prasun's dog being selected was not big thing. But he couldn't digest Prasun's dog being the top dog while his own dog was trying to maintain his second position with lot of difficulty.

Today wasn't so good. So was yesterday and day before that day as well as tomorrow or any day. But today was worse than other days. Ramlal had planned to bring his dog before everyone else and do basic practice so that his dog didn't make any mistakes. Unfortunately Prasun's presence spoiled all his plan.

Ramlal knew he wouldn't be able to succeed with Prasun's dog winning every time. " How come you are early today?", he asked as if he was unaware about what they were doing. Prasun didn't respond and pretended as if he didn't hear. "Anyway your dog is best. It doesn't need much practice.", he said with irony.

Prasun ignored and continued with his work. Ramlal was angry. He was never ignored. How could a jobless Prasun ignore him?  He grabbed Prasun's hand and said firmly," How dare you?  Who are you to not listen to me? How dare you ignore me?"

Prasun was surprised though not shocked. He knew about Ramlal's jealousy but he could do anything about it. If he tried to argue, he was sure he had to bear the brunt. It was like adding more fuel to the fire. 

(To be continued)

     

The Tiger's Hound- Part 22

Prasun was angry.. very angry. His face was red. He held his fists tight until his nails poked his hard skin of his palms. Sheru stared at him with his ears bent. It knew that Prasun wouldn't leave. The dog was petrified.

It wanted to run. Unfortunately it felt numbness in it's paw due to fear. Strange! Fear could actually control your body functions. Sheru whined softly. Prasun could only hear his heart thumping due to anger.

Prasun took the stick and stomped towards him. As he reached near, the dog bent to show his fear. It looked cute though. It had almost covered it's face with it's one of it's paw. Prasun couldn't keep the stick longer in his hand and threw it aside.

His anger melted seeing his dog scared. He simply brushed it's head. Sheru was astonished and so was Prasun. "Why didn't I hit him? Why did I melt so easily? What was wrong with me? Why did I call the dog as him?", he thought.

Next day was usual. It was normal day. Prasun was first one to bring his dog to the training. Others hadn't arrived yet. He started practicing the dog with the exercises. He made the dog run the field. He also gave the normal instruction of sit, stand, fetch and run.

Sheru followed it without any fuss. It didn't find these exercises boring. It enjoyed the excercises especially the fetch was it's favorite. Ramlal was second to arrive with his dog. He was not happy to see Prasun already training his dog. He wanted Prasun to fail in deepest of his heart

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 21

He offered Sheru as he promised. But he added too much of masala to make it more spicy. He knew Sheru couldn't tolerate spicy food. He placed the plate in front of Sheru. It smacked it's lips and couldn't control it's temptation.

It took large piece of the fish. It didn't expect it coming. The fish was tasty. But the spice was too much for it to relish the taste. It spit the fish and looked up. It's tongue was out. It's eyes were watering.

It knew something was wrong with it's master who was turning sweet suddenly. But it didn't expect this. It had assumed that it would be offered food and then given nice spankings. It also thought that it would just get spankings instead of juicy fish.

The yummy fish and hunger was to be blamed. Hadn't it been tempted, it would have caught him red handed. Now it only wanted water to cool it's tongue. Prasun enjoyed the view of his naughty dog in danger. He wanted it to learn a spicy lesson. This way, it would never mess with him.

Sheru ran towards the vessel filled with water. The vessel was the same height as Sheru. It stretched a bit to have a sip. The water cooled it's tongue. It kept drinking until it's tummy stopped burning and it felt relieved.

Prasun got busy with day to day tasks. He got on with the work of fetching fish for dinner. He cleaned his broken house and made it look better. Later he walked towards the lake and fetched fishes for dinner. As he walked home, Sheru leaped towards him. The fishes were fallen down. It then ate all the fishes fallen on the ground

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 20

Sheru was happy. A large fish! It couldn't believe it's ears. Did it listen it right? A large fish for itself! Sheru didn't know whether to trust it's master's words. It's master was too clever. He wouldn't offer until there was no added benefit.

What was the task behind the large fish? Oh my god! It didn't want to be pushed to excel. Maybe this was Prasun's way of getting things done from Sheru. But Sheru had a counter plan to reverse Prasun's plans.

Sheru would have the fish without having to go through a lot of work. But for the fish, he had to make sure that Prasun believed that he would get the work done only when the fish was offered. Sheru would have the fish but it would give up like today. 

Sheru had learnt it tough way. It was learning the art of taking advantage of ones around it. Prasun was it's first experiment. Till now, it had been used in several ways by humans and it's own kind. Now it was doing the same thing.

They had reached home. Prasun threw the dog gently at the other side. Sheru fell. Fortunately it didn't get itself hurt. It whined. Prasun ignored and got ready for the lunch and dinner. He didn't speak. He knew it was of no use. He had understood that if he tried to hit it or be annoyed, he would be in trouble.

He had no choice. He had to offer food as well as good place to rest. If he didn't offer, Sheru would make sure that it fared badly in all the exercises and be the last one amongst all the dogs. Then Kimberly would make Sheru just the alternate choice and not the top choice. He never wanted that and he had to treat his dog royally in order to make his dream a reality.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 19

As soon as he reached home, he found the stick. Sheru walked excitedly with hope that he would give something delicious to eat. It believed that Prasun might have learnt his lesson now. It knew that he would do anything to be on top. It assumed that Prasun will offer him the tasty piece now that he was scared of losing the position.

When Sheru turned back towards it's master, it was shocked to see Prasun with the stick. "Because of you, I would have lost my dream. I would have fallen down and all these.. capturing you, training and making you capable would have wasted. Today I will not leave you.", he scolded, while he was ready to hit Sheru.

Before he could hit it, it ran as fast as it could. Prasun chased while firmly asking it to stop running. But it didn't stop. It ran towards the center of the village until it reached it's training grounds. Prasun threw the stick as soon as he realized that he was in the training ground where Kimberly and Shyam Babu were frequently seen.

Prasun stopped and gathered his energy. He ran again when he felt better. He increased his speed and threw himself on the dog. By then everyone surrounded him to watch the scene. He had to come up with something. 

"Are you fine?", he asked, taking deep breath. "You shouldn't run like this. You will hurt yourself more. Come on, Sheru! Be a good dog! Take rest!", he said , holding his paw tight. Sheru whimpered. He carried the dog in arms and brushed his head.

He pretended as if he cared. " I will give you large fish if you listen. See, everyone thinks I don't care you enough. Show them how much we love each other.", he said as he kissed the dog. He walked with the dog in his hand till he reached home.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 18

Sheru knew what it was supposed to do. It behaved normal and did it's task as it was told. It ran a mile which included running zig zag and avoiding the obstacles. As it walked on the plank, it pretended to fall. It looked real. Everyone except Prasun worried if Sheru hurt itself.

Kimberly took Sheru at once. She checked whether Sheru was hurt. Sheru winced some times to show that it was in pain. She took it's paw and brushed it to see where the pain was. It winced again when she touched it's paw. She tied a cloth piece on its paw and called Prasun out.

"Nothing to worry, Prasun. It's a slight injury. He(Sheru) will be fine within few hours. Sheru is brave dog and these tiny incident won't affect him", she said. Prasun didn't understand other than word Sheru. He smiled as she gave him a comforting smile.

She left him with Sheru. Prasun was angry. He was in verge of hitting it instead he hit Sheru with words, "Why didn't you balance the last act? Your tiny mistakes won't matter now. But once they realize other dogs have more potential than you, they will ignore you. And I won't let you ruin what we have done."

He quickly bent down to remove the knot tied to it's leg when Shyam arrived to check Sheru's health. " What are you doing? Sheru is hurt", Shyam said, astonished with what he was seeing. Prasun immediately tied the knot tight instead of untying it.

He got up and said, " I was only making sure that the knot was tight and whether he was alright." Shyam Babu nodded and patted Sheru's back.  As soon as Prasun walked back home, he sighed deeply, thanking almighty that he wasn't caught abusing the dog. He had to be careful.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 17

Prasun woke up to the loud noise of falling vessel. He brushed his eyes and twitched his nose to see clearly what had happened. When the image was clear to him, he stood  up angrily with both his fists placed each side of his hips. He stared furiously at Sheru.

Sheru looked down while it could feel the fury waves coming towards it. Prasun searched his weapon to instigate his anger on Sheru. He found stick to hit him. He chased Sheru with the stick while it ran away.

Sheru ran into tiny allies and passages where it could crawl into. But Prasun was very clever.He found the dog everywhere it hid. Unfortunately he couldn't catch it. It would run away as soon as he caught it.

Prasun was tired and angry when he reached the training ground. He didn't even have proper breakfast nor freshened up to look decent to Kimberly, Shyam Babu and others. They gaped at him for appearing in uncombed hair and sleep ridden eyes. Shyam Babu summoned for water tumbler and offered to him.

Prasun diligently washed his face while Sheru smiled with his tongue out. It was breathing hard and rejoicing it's win over the first part of the plan. It got prepared for next part. It made sure he had hard time next few hours.

As soon as Prasun was fresh, the training started. Kimberly asked all the dog handlers to hold the leash and guide the dog towards the next excercise which included running for a mile ,jumping onto the plank and balancing on it. Few dogs could manage the act while some failed and didn't try. It was Sheru's turn. It was waiting for it's turn eagerly.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 16

Oh his poor master! It smiled inside thinking about how it was going to make him feel worse. It was going to taught tough lesson on how to treat a dog with love and care. Sheru had not seen a single guest or a person greet him. Maybe this was the reason it's master was so snobbish and cold.

It had come across some sweet humans who offered it food with love when it was a stray puppy. They patted it while it gobbled the food due to hunger. Sweet humans!! They were hardly there. It had thought that those sweet humans would come again this time to adopt. They never came back.

It waited. The days passed. It had accepted the bitter truth that they would never come back. It had made friends with the other stray dogs. It had almost become alpha dog when it's friend betrayed it by leaving it to the wicked Prasun's clutches. Now here it was, impressing the person it had hated during the first few days.

But with free food coming towards it, it had slight feeling that it's master was not all bad. There is something good in him which he has not realized. He may seem inhuman and useless to everyone else but for Sheru, he was good man with cold heart.

The morning arrived too quickly. It woke up to rays of sun. It stretched it's legs and walked up to it's master. It licked him and pushed it's head towards his shoulder. Prasun didn't wake up. He was snoring and sleeping calmly.

Sheru tried everything. Prasun still slept in ease. Sheru walked towards the vessel that contained water. The atmosphere was quiet and tranquil. Sheru knocked it down and water spilled while the falling vessel disturbed everything peaceful.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 15

Sheru looked away. It didn't want to show it's hungry eyes to him. It licked it's saliva as the smell of the fish penetrated it's nose. For a second, it thought of snatching the fish from his hand and running away. But it couldn't betrayed it's master. It was because of him that it got timely food and place to stay. If it remained loyal, the food and place will remain for sometime until it found a new place.

Prasun seemed a bit cranky as usual to Sheru. It waited for it's share. It deserved to be treated with good food. It had gathered many praises from the lady who was teaching it new skills. It didn't fail anywhere. But it's master was indifferent. He didn't give anything to eat or spoke any good words.

It didn't understand whether it hated or loved it's master. They shared a strange relationship. It didn't love him nor it hated him. He had never ill treated him nor showered too much love to him.But still it had never thought of betraying him. Sheru could sense a good human that secretly resided in Prasun's heart.

Sheru tried to sleep but it's growling tummy didn't let him sleep. It looked again towards Prasun. Prasun avoided his dog. He knew that it wanted it's share of masala fish. He didn't offer. He didn't want to share his treat with anyone. Sheru was only a tool that would help him with fulfilling his dreams.

Alas! His human heart couldn't see his dog sleeping hungry. Maybe there was little love inside his hopeless heart. He had learnt hard way the lessons of selfishness yet he never could forget the kindness.

He offered Sheru a raw fish that he had thought of cooking next day. Sheru ate the fish within few seconds.It waited for a pat on it's head for being good dog, It didn't receive any pat or love from Prasun. It only got his scornful gaze. It ran away to it's place where it laid with thoughts of how it could get it's revenge of it's master's cold snub.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 14

It cried and turned away from the sight. Kimberly held it's hand gently and injected it to keep immune from all kind of germs. The dogs had to be fit and healthy in order to face danger.The tigers in the jungle were ruthless and they didn't care if their prey were weak. It would pounce on anything that seems like food to it.

The pain was just a pinch. Sheru felt relived when the needle was taken out.It had thought it was going to loose it's life. Thank lord! The lady was sweet enough to not to kill it. It's master on the other hand would have taken it's life if he was given the needle.It ran before it was given any more surprises like that.

Prasun called Sheru. But it pretended as if it didn't hear and ran as fast as it could. He didn't chase it. He knew his dog well. It had ran away because it didn't want to face his wrath. Anyway he had cooled down when he saw Kimberly and Shyam Babu praising Sheru.

Shyam Babu stopped him for small chat, " Sheru is showing lot of improvement. He is the dark horse of our pack." Prasun nodded his head and smiled. "Anyway, where had you been? Sheru arrived the location much earlier than you.", Shyam Babu continued. "I.. I had to fetch fish for Sheru's dinner. It wants it's food on time.", Prasun lied.


Shyam Babu joked, "Very punctual dog!" and left Prasun to his thoughts. Prasun walked back home. He wasn't angry. He was surprised why his wild dog had turned into sober one. Maybe it's hunger made it do things such as being loyal to him.

Prasun prepared fish with little masala that he had purchased with money he had. He had always dreamed that he would prepare little royal food for himself when he would get the job. As he sat down with his dinner, Sheru came in from now where and sat next to him. He gave wicked smile. He was not going to share his dinner today.

(To be continued)

The Tiger's Hound- Part 13

He didn't believe his eyes. He had almost lost hope and had given up again because of this dog. Here it was standing and wagging at it's tail while Kimberly was giving instructions. He wanted to hit the dog but he couldn't do that. It was because of this dog, he would be able to relive his dream again.

He walked towards Sheru and stood next to him the way other dogs and their handlers stood. He stood third from where Ramlal stood with his dog. They followed the instruction well. It looked as if they were born for this only- being the villager guard. However he still didn't understand why Ramlal participated. He had huge house and inherited lot of wealth from his ancestor. He even had job to support his additional income.

He looked at Sheru. Today it was more diligent and loyal. This was unusual. It was more playful and never listened to his orders. Sheru did what it was told. But Prasun was still not out of his shock. He still believed he was living a dream. Maybe it was a dream. If he pinched himself, he would be out within few minutes.

He pinched twice. He slapped himself repeated times. He wasn't out of the dream. Maybe it was not a dream. He bough himself back to reality when he realized people staring at his weird actions. He smiled and said, " I have nap at this time. It will take time for me to unlearn this habit."

Shyam Babu smiled while Kimberly nodded her head, signalling him that it was okay. As the dogs completed their basic training, they were given some vaccines. It was Sheru's turn. Like other dogs, he was afraid too. But it jumped when the needle was close to it.

He tried to soothe the dog. But Sheru was really scared. What if it was painful! It never saw anything like that being inserted to it's skin by human. Were they going to kill him? Oh Lord! No! It didn't want to die so soon.

(To be continued)