Dogs Do Make News!
A pet dog has become talk of the town in the national capital. It’s in news for no fault of it, but because of its “caring masters”, a senior IAS officers’ couple of the Delhi government, who were sent on a “stroll” (read transferred) by the Home Ministry on Thursday evening to two different corners of India—husband to the Union Territory of Ladakh and wife to Arunachal Pradesh. The IAS officers became famous countrywide when a newspaper splashed on Page 1 of how both have been pushing the athletes out from the state-of-the-art Thyagraj Stadium daily in the late evening to walk on the tracks with their pet dog. Hours after The Indian Express news went viral on social media and television channels, Principal Secretary (Revenue) Sanjeev Khirwar and his wife Rinku Dugga were transferred with immediate effect by the Home Ministry to distant lands in totally different directions.
Sympathy For The Dog Growing
The In the meantime, a wave of sympathy has emerged for the IAS officers’ dog, their daily evening companion. Many, especially animal lovers, are wondering what would happen to the pet dog; whether it would go to Ladakh with Khirwar or his wife Dugga would take it with her to Arunachal Pradesh or would it be left at their Delhi home, which they can retain during their postings outside. “It would be cruel on the part of the IAS couple if the dog, which is used to Delhi weather and evening stroll, is taken to the extreme cold desert of Ladakh or cold climate region of Arunachal Pradesh,” an animal rights activist commented suggesting that famous dogs lover, senior BJP leader Maneka Gandhi, should keep a track of this dog. “I pity this dog as it’s going to miss its royal walk in the stadium forever,” a woman activist said observing that the dog just used to follow masters’ instructions to join them for an evening walk. Some civil servants are saying that one must appreciate the IAS officers’ affection for their dog as they used to take it daily for a stroll in a quiet and secluded environment.
Dogs’ Walk at The Republic Day Parade
This writer remembers childhood days when with the family I used to watch the grand Republic Day Parade from Connaught Place’s inner circle’s corridors (there was no parking space like today). Every year, I used to see a stray dog suddenly appearing to walk in the middle of the vast road, ahead of a marching military column. The policemen and sweepers used to run after it to push it from the parade route. Spectators used to clap, and, on some occasions, newspaper photographers clicked “the dog’s march” ahead of smartly dressed jawans marching columns. It was fun.
When Indian Airlines Went To the Dogs
This writer remembers one dog story as Civil Aviation Correspondent in The Hindustan Times; it was as good as Khirwar and his wife Dugga’s walk in the stadium with their pet dog.
I was sitting with the Director General Civil Aviation, H.S. Khola in his office one evening in mid-nineties. A peon brought a fax sent to him by a Delhi-Mumbai Indian Airlines passenger after his flight had landed. After reading it, Khola looked upset. Asked what happened, he gave me the fax to read. According to the passenger, a smart woman was sitting in the front row in his flight, with a cute white puppy in her lap. After the take-off, when the airhostess asked the passengers to unfasten their belts, she went inside the cockpit and returned to her seat after 20 minutes and the little doggy seemed to be restless. “I asked the airhostess who this lady was. She informed that she was the Commander’s wife,” the passenger wrote wondering how she could enter the cockpit defying the rules and the dog could have reacted differently inside the cockpit seeing clouds, damaging instruments. I asked the DGCA what he would do. He replied that both the Commander and the co-pilot would be grounded. The next day’s paper carried my story as Page 1 bottom spread with headline: Indian Airlines Literally Goes To Dogs!
They Were 100% Dog Bites!
In The Hindustan Times, one evening, Editor H.K. Dua walked in the political bureau, and asked me to cover a crime story. Asked why city reporters could not do it, Dua said, “I want your special touch.” I was touched. The crime spot was a big kothi in a posh South Delhi colony, of the owner of a new ice-cream brand called “100% Ice-Cream”. A former employee had lodged an FIR with the police complaining that when he went to the kothi to ask for his pending salary, the employer had refused and released his ferocious dog to attack him and he was bitten by the dog badly. His medical examination confirmed serious dog bites. The ice-cream company owner refused to meet me. The next morning the paper carried the story on Page 1 as anchor with the headline: Yes, They Were 100% Dog Bites!