A small heart-warming story
A small heart-warming story as we tackle this last trading day of 2016.
Naveen, a KSRTC employee decided to walk nearly 700 kms, from Kollur in Udipi ro Sabarimala in Kerala. He began his journey on the 7th of December, beginning the walk at 3am. Some 80 kms onto the road, he noticed that a stray dog was following him. In India, stray dogs are everywhere and our first reaction is to always shoo it away. That’s what Naveen did but the dog continued to follow.
Naveen saw that the dog was gentle and would cause him no harm, so largely ignored it and hoped that eventually it will give up. But this was probably a bond which has no scientific or logical explanation. The dog walked all along with Naveen, the entire 700 kms till Sabarimala Pamba steps.
The dog, named Malu, which is short for “Malikappuram”, is a term used to address female Sabarimala devotees. Malu acted a true companion, protecting Naveen and even waking him up when he overslept one early morning.
Having got used to him, when Naveen reached Sabarimala temple, he was taken aback when he saw that Malu was not following him. He walked ahead and saw Malu waiting patiently for him at the steps of Pamba. It took Naveen 1.5 days to come down again only to find Malu still sitting there for him.
Needless to say, Malu and Naveen are now friends for life. Naveen took Malu to his home in Beypore, by a KSRTC bus, sitting right next to him, sleeping the whole journey through! Malu now sports the symbolic brown-beaded necklace around her neck, probably a reminders to herself and those around her of her incredible journey.
How can any logic truly explain such miracles of life?