The Railway Gang written by Ruskin Bond always makes me think about several anecdotes that invariably happened in my own life. The description regarding Chottu the young stray dog exactly connects to the one I have seen and which keep moving me whenever there is a stray dog seen out anywhere. In general, most of the people do not care their existence unless they are in the news for having bitten some child. As I probed deeply, found that in almost all cases, the said victim have had bullied or provoked first but people would forget it or would not notice it in hurry as the child was hurt is seen on surface. So everybody goes against the dog naturally.
And having leftovers and unwanted stuff is a matter of big fight with fellow dogs. Who knows sometimes they could go hungry for days. And hardly anyone is there to provide some morsels of food. In our Ruskin Bond's story, Chottu has some shelter in that Railway station and somebody like Kishore would throw a parota now and then. But there were many Chottus are there without any shelter and It's clueless who is there to turn to address the problem. Somewhere we have to end this pathetic life for innocent puppies but how..? Yes, here is a solution. Every dog lover should adopt a stray one and our indigenous dogs are no way inferior compared to any foreign breed.
Ruskin Bond described passionately how happy Chottu was when it came back from a new place. I don't think a writer without an immense kind heart towards animals couldn't tell that sort of soulful tale. We see exquisite warmth and compassion all through the story of The Railway Gang. It told us that animals too have heart wrenching interaction among them and to decipher it one must have empathy towards them. And one more eyeopener is not to getting asleep while we are in swaying compartment, else we would land up in an unidentified station like our Chottu to slunk away in the crowd. And who knows there might be a tough gang of semi wild hounds.
----- Murthy KVVS
