The Wolves Became Dogs – Short Story with Moral Lesson
Photo credit: Frances_Marie from morguefile.com
“A tea and a cigarette” said Amit in a low voice. The vendor looked at him and understood everything. Its hard to accept sometimes but its true that your ‘chaiwala’ knows you better.
“Go, sit alone for a while and think what you need to do to perform better”
Those were the words of his manager which once more came to his mind and he went further down into his lane of sadness and misery.
“Here” said the vendor while handing the tea glass, cigarette, match box and a pack of fruit cakes to Amit. It was his usual. The break is at noon every day. The vendor looks at his watch and starts making tea before hand. He expects Amit and other ten to fifteen colleagues to visit his shop at the same time everyday.
He took a sip of the tea and a bite of the cake. Suddenly he noticed the brown stray dog coming towards him. He was about to finish the cake when the dog appeared. He threw the last bite to the dog. The dog caught it in mid way and went to sit at the side of the road to enjoy his meal.
“How does the dog know that I have my break at noon?” a strange question pondered over his mind. He looked at his watch and it was fifteen past twelve.
“Right on time every day!” he exclaimed to himself in the marvel of the puncuality of the dog.
“They don’t even have a watch.” Amit said to himself.
Suddenly Amit was shocked a bit. He realized something and said to himself,” Do they even know the concept of time? Past, present, future?”
He was continuously observing the dog and found that he was trying to chew the cake . The efforts looked strange to him. He saw its pointed teeth .
“Canines”
“They are not meant to eat the cakes, are they? They should be hunters, predators, killers!”
“Does nature knew that this dog would eat a cake anytime in his life? Nature should provide them a set of teeth like humans. So that they can chew and savor the cake.” Amit was talking to himself.
“Bloody buggers! They cheated the nature!” It looked as if he understood something deep and exclaimed to himself once again.
“Yes you are right!’ Amit heard a strange voice in his head. He looked here and there but no one was talking to him. He was sitting alone there today. The break was over but still he wanted to sit there. It was a pretty bad day at office.
“We cheated the nature” the voice came again.
Amit’s eyes met the dog’s eyes and he was horrified to realise the possiblity.
“A dog is talking? A dog is talking to me?” Amit was going nuts and was about to run when the dog spoke again.
“What do you mean a dog? It is not a derogatory term my dear. We are the smartest of the species on the whole of the earth. Look at the tigers, poor souls they are about to extinct like dodo. Although they were hundred times smarter, faster and powerful than dodo. ”
Amit couldn’t get up and run. He kept seated and didn’t break the eye contact. He was sort of hypnotized.
“There was a time Amit when there was no dog. There were only wolves, fearsome, big bad wolves. They were marvelous hunters. They ran in packs. They had a society. There were winners and looses and an actual social system almost like humans.”
“Then” asked Amit.
“Then there were some smart wolves. They were old but they were pretty smart. They were like the precursor of democracy. They had a strong command on the leader wolf and whole of the pack.
The smart wolves had a meeting and the smartest wolves from all over the world were invited. They were concerned about the hazards of their occupation. They wanted to ban hunting all together. They said hunting is too dangerous. All the time wolves get killed in hunting.
They had a theory of communism in their mind. They talked of social welfare where everybody should be treated equal. The resolution was passed. There would be food for every body. There would be wives for every wolf. Their lineage would continue.
They sorted a medium for that. It was a very clever thought out plan. They have identified a species who was the most stupid. They identified humans. They were brave, they were strong but they were stupid enough to be egoistic.
They became the friends of humans. They tamed humans or humans tamed them ,I could never understand. And the practice continues till now. We have remains of our wolf-ness like our teeth but the spirits have subdued a long ago. Humans kick us, spit on us or even use dog as a bad word, but we survived.
Humans keep on inventing. They invented different foods, religion, concepts like time,wheel,fire,internet,insurance but we survive. Now we survive to the extent Amit that the dog at your manager’s house live lavishly than you. Your total salary is less than the amount spend on his food and care.”
“Hmm, I think you are right.” Amit was absorbed in the dog’s revelation.
“No, this is not it Amit. There is another side of story too.”
“What is that?” asked Amit.
“There were wolves and there are wolves Amit. They never left their identity. They lived for their respect. They believed in their identity. They still hunt. The world is still afraid of them.They revolted the smart ones. They fought for themselves. They were tried to be stopped by the elders. The society condemned them. Then there was developed an education system to kill the hunting spirit so that no dog could become a wolf.
But the wolves have survived too! They listened to their souls and they are proud hunters. They don’t live for security in life. They make it large Amit! They don’t want air conditioning, they don’t care if they travel in a car. They are proud to be what they are. Nobody dares kick them! We venerate them. It was never easy for them and it will never be but you know what Amit… it is not worth being a dog!”
“One more tea sir?” asked the vendor.
“Yes, of course and a cigarette too!”Amit was smiling now.
“Won’t you get late? I heard the manager sir is very harsh these days?” its strange they always know so much about your life, wondered Amit.
“There is difference between dogs and wolves Raju bhai! One more cigarette and tea please.”
The vendor was a bit amazed by the confidence in Amit’s tone.
The next day ten or fifteen colleagues of Amit came to the tea stall but Amit didn’t show up.
“You know he even said to the manager… It is not worth being a dog!” They were discussing among themselves.
__END__
