Bheema Returns

The city must have learnt a couple of lessons from the drama concerning the missing Alsatian of former city police commissioner M V Krishna Rao. If to know that even dogs have sequels — Bheema II — was a revelation, more so was the fact that how stealing a dog can be a high-profile and profitable proposition. The rule is simple. Steal a dog belonging to a bureaucrat or a top cop; keep it with you for a couple of days; treat it well and return it as soon the prize money is announced. And all this comes with a fair share of media attention, which even a bank heist won’t always give you.

And the other lesson is that a pet foreign breed dog should not always have an English name. Just like Big B is named Vijay in most of his movies, I think at least 3 out of ten dogs in our country are called Tomy. The other popular names are Jack, Snoopy, and Rambo etc. Some even go to the extent of addressing their dogs as Tiger. It serves two purposes. One, it gives the dog false confidence and the other it gives the ever confusing tiger census a boost. Although poaching is still big in India, the tiger census continues to paint a healthy picture. May be thanks to these homemade Tigers! Now coming to some unique dog names, I think the funniest that I have ever come across is what popular journalist Vinod Mehta calls his dog — Editor.

And the latest is that dogs also have their daily laughs. Now lets for a moment forget about the science part of it. What are the things that can make a dog laugh? Well, the answer must be somewhere related to us. Bheema must be having a hearty laugh now-a-days because in his career as a guard dog, he never saw his photo appear in a newspaper till he went missing for two days and suddenly he was the most sought-after. And the popular pug in the mobile service provider ads, must be laughing at all the subscribers by saying that, “I have been following my owners since time immemorial. There is nothing new in it. And you believed networks do the same. But I don’t mind as long as I keep getting movie offers and you inflated bills.” And all most all the celebrity canine population must now be laughing because Dhramendra Paaji has finally retired because he was one actor who always looked down upon them by comparing them with humans. Remember the “Kutte, Kamine, Mein Tera Khoon…” dialogues.