God plans and cares for every living creature!

This is the story of a stray dog named Sallu who was born and brought up in our colony but lost his way and disappeared on a Diwali night (perhaps escaping the fire crackers). Among the gang of stray dogs, he is the most docile, affectionate and good looking. One day me and my friends – Dr Sunder Raman, Saraswathi, Kannan decided to go out for dinner at Swarana Restaurant, Janpath, New Delhi. After which we all headed for Nirula’s located near the Bhikaji Cama Place petrol pump (just opposite to our residential colony Safdarjung Enclave where lived several stray dogs. Among them, I suddenly recognised Sallu, my long lost friend. He immediately identified us and while all other dogs left the spot, he kept sitting outside the main door of Nirula’s waiting for us to come out.

The petrol pump attendants and Nirula’s waiters were surprised by the behaviour of Sallu. I came out and told them that I will walk him home. But the main obstacle was crossing the busy main road at 9.30 pm. Kannan and I walked Sallu up to the main road where the furry buddy stopped and refused to cross. The vehicle lights were terrifying him. Kannan then lifted Sallu and waited for the traffic to stop, but it didn’t stop.

Then Nirula’s waiters also came over and told us to leave Sallu with them as they regularly feed them. We looked at Sallu and asked him whether he would like to go ‘home’ with us? What I saw was a remarkable expression! He raised his head and looked thoughtful – I could ‘see’ him making a decision! Then suddenly Romey told him – “Let’s go!” and we all three headed towards a subway. Sallu ran with us, so full of joy. He crossed the subway and stopped to sniff the outside lane of the colony (which smelled familiar to him).

While entering our colony gate, he jumped with joy! Romey went ahead to drop him outside his home located just seven houses away from ours. The watchman informed her that they had been searching for him for past one week. When Romey returned, Sallu also came back wagging his tail as if to thank us. It was so overwhelming to see such affection. We were so grateful to get Sallu back!