Our Puppy Champ

I wish I could begin with some eloquent quote about Dogs being man’s best friend or narrate a heart-warming tale of the magic a dog’s love can weave. Well. I cannot. I have a rambunctious puppy at home that has all but managed to send me to a mental asylum. He’s fun to play with, don’t get me wrong but he’s also managed to make my husband and me question our sanity and certain life decisions (such as adopting said puppy) at 4 a.m.

Let me introduce Champion Suresh Vance to you. He’s a frisky young 11 month old (the size of a calf) that thinks he’s as light as a feather when he goes and plonks on my husband’s lap. At such times, only the guttural sounds being emitted from somewhere beneath the mound of black fur indicate my husband’s continued, but laboured worldly presence. Champ is the sort of dog that takes pleasure in life’s little things. Like chasing after scurrying bunnies, (and now that autumn’s set in) he even runs after dry leaves that swirl in the wind. All this would seem adorable if he didn’t have a full fledged adult attached to him by a leash. I have to narrate one particular incident here, to demonstrate his behaviour that leaves one exasperated, and him well deserving of a thwack.

One chilly morning, when I took him for his usual early morning walk, I didn’t realise how cold it was, and that there were layers of thin ice formed on the pavement. After Champ finished his business and we were on our way back to the apartment, he spotted a couple of bunnies on the front lawn. Now, under normal circumstances, I’m fairly prepared for his manoeuvre of a lunge-tug-and-drag-startled-owner move. But not today and not on thin ice (!) To make matters worse, he jumped over a small fence to get to the bunnies faster. For anyone who’s lived in places where it drops below freezing temperatures, you probably know that water freezes easily on sodden wet wood. I didn’t. I smartly did the only thing I thought would make me rein him in- Stand with one foot on my sturdy fence and pull on his leash. Except that my sturdy fence wasn’t so much sturdy as slippery, because it had a layer of ice! And what would be my next course of action do you think? Instead of putting both feet on the ground, I went ahead and actually stood on the fence. All for a glorious 2 seconds before Champ gave one last happy leap.  Needless to say I landed face first into the nearest bush and ended up with more than just injured pride.

Champ for some reason, also has this ritual of running in circles as fast as he can, around our coffee table. He derives great joy in doing this but it results in shoes, magazines and unidentified objects flying pell-mell in the room. At such times it’s amusing to watch my otherwise reserved and sombre husband exclaim:

“Champ! Sit!” Only to have him continue to run wildly.

“Champ! Stop!” To have him to run wildly, with his tongue out gleefully.

“Champ! Heel!” To have him run wildly, with his tongue out and go skidding on our hardwood floor.

Champ’s foster mother has assured me that our dog WILL grow out of this lunatic-puppy phase and he’ll eventually stop doing things like diving for people’s crotches as soon as he meets them (much to our collective embarrassment), that he’ll stop giving unsolicited bear hugs to victims lying on the couch, and will actually listen, when we give him a command. Until then we have to put up with him being our designated alarm clock (that goes off at freaking 4 am!) our paper shredder and yet, our lovable warm ball of fur that lets us cuddle him.

Dosti :)

 If I were to ask which your favourite movie was, on friendship, I'm willing to bet that 9/10 of you will come up with names of films that either dealt with a bunch of guys who took on challenges for their country; Or went on a holiday to Spain/Goa, or a college-friendship-turned-love-story or finally, that yesteryear movie with two guys on a side car scooter. 

If you're in the 1/10 category, yes, to be fair, there have been movies about girls and their friendships, but they've more often than not, been veiled under layers of Dolce and Gabbana and Maybelline or had an underlying social message about being wronged by the male sex. Just how many movies give us a real idea of what female friendships embody? (No not lesbian, just pure strong friendship between girls.)

For the longest time, we've been fed rubbish about "Aurat hi aurat ki sabse badi dushman hai" (A woman is a woman's worst enemy) and it irks me no end when our friendships are spoken of in the past tense once a girl gets married and leaves. I know FB posts have probably gone overboard with their portrayal of everything a girl has to do for society, (men?) but my argument here is why our friendships are so underplayed and why are our equations and ties with the girls we love most expected to take the natural course of "...but that's how it is". 

One of my closest friends got married recently and as happy as I was for her, my heart ached at the thought of her moving cities to live with her husband and in-laws. Another childhood friend of mine can't make it for my wedding (Yeah, there'll be a whole other post delving into that subject) because of familial pressure due to the timing. In both cases, it took two more girl pals of mine to 1) Cry with me, on the night of the Sangeet about how we'd deal with life without our common bestie and 2) Explain that the poor friend in question is torn between her family and me and it's not fair to hold her at ransom for it.

Maybe the point of my post is to give you, my dear readers, an idea of my understanding of what long standing deep friendships between girls stand for. Or maybe (because of everything that it's portrayed to be) ... tell you what they DON'T stand for. 

They're not about sexy pillow fights on sleepovers: Yeah, sorry to shatter the illusion. We don't wear skimpy things to bed either. We're usually dressed in baggy pyjamas, loose t-shirts and all we do is binge eat. And belch.

They're not about taking duck-face selfies: Hell no. Even if we've been guilty of trying to do a pout, we fail so miserably that the next few selfies are blurred from the phone shaking so much while laughing.

They're not about excessive PDA: Except for a casual hug when we meet, girls do not blow kisses to each other. (Unless they're making fun of people who do) 

They're not about shopping: This has got to be a huge myth buster. Yes girls shop and yes they like it, but strong friendships (I don't believe) have been built on cooing about the latest discount sale at Mango. 

They're not about bonding over boys: Of course not. Just like there's a bro code, we have a woe code. Men cause us woes and we don't like getting our love lives tangled in our friendships. (Disclaimer: Cat fights over boys usually happen in movies.) 

And lastly, they're not about being politically correct: We call each other out if we're doing something exceptionally dumb, but join in the fray if it’s within the limits of acceptable stupidity. We also use expletives to address one another. None of those saccharine sweet nicknames. We reserve those for our gold fish, puppy, or boy friends'.  

So maybe our world isn't ready for full blown female friendships where the men in our lives work around our social circle (of forming cliques with our friends’ husbands') but I hope to live to a time when they do...  I'd like to end this post with one of my favourite quotes on friendship. "Nothing lasts forever. Dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships...They never go out of style."

Here's hoping every girl out there be blessed with buddies she's willing to die for because the best lesson this relationship can teach is that if you want a friend, you have to be one first.