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)