THE STRANGER WOMAN AND THE STRAY DOG




















“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

-          Ernest Hemingway


Today, on my way back from the Tai Chi class, I saw a delightful sight… A young woman, who seemed to be on her way back from the Gym, was playfully engaged with a stray dog… The young woman wooed the stranger doggy, who, was, initially, skeptical and scared to come near the unknown lady. But, the stray quickly got melted by the loving invitation, trust and assurance offered. The dog was, now, wagging its tail in joy… It kept coming closer and closer to the young woman, and, finally, just fell into her arms!

It took for me some time to comprehend the silent lesson, which had just unfolded before my eyes on the roadside… I stood a little away from the spot and kept watching the amazing ‘love-scene’… till the young woman got into her car, parked a few steps away… The dog, meanwhile, kept getting caressed, till it got separated, finally…


Just last evening, I was talking to a highly-qualified gentleman… He was narrating to me the situation in their residential building. It had hardly twenty members, all highly qualified. The building was in a bad condition and had to undergo urgent major repairs. But, the gentleman was in pain to narrate to me about the kind of distrust the members bore in their hearts… Despite the urgency of the situation, they were not ready to easily trust each other… Suspicion and petty egos had hijacked the process and the repairs-plan had gone for a royal toss, with no hope in sight… “The people in the slums have a better trust level,” the gentleman said in anguish, “just twenty of us cannot display trust even though we have lived in the same building for years together.”

So, this morning, as I stood there on the roadside, beholding the trust and affection displayed by the young woman and the street dog – complete strangers – I remembered the anguish expressed by the gentleman, last evening… and I thought as to how different and difficult it was ‘for some of us’ to do so...

Yes, I did say ‘for some of us’… Highly educated, I did say, too.


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: www.shutterstock.com

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