sound of children at play

here is my music room full of dogs and children, and of course us adults. it was fun we all had in this little room. on the floor one can see Ipsita's two sons, Payal's daughter Nikita, Basant's wife Payal with her son, Samaarth, and my own Nikki. Amartya the brat in red is playing doggy too, it seems. i am behind the harmonium whose keyboard is visible from here. wish i had a better angle.

look at Raga here posing. she never looks into the camera this way.

The Serious Benefits of Play

The Serious Benefits of Play: "There’s more to playtime than just having fun—there are important health benefits, too.
LET THE FUN & GAMES BEGIN"

two pictures from march 2010

i always love to introduce children with my dogs, good for both of them- in this picture my school friend, Priti's children had come home and they are all here sitting on the front lawn with my three girls: ginger, nikki, raga. Interestingly, two dogs are also looking into the camera. Raga had a bone in her forelegs and that was keeping her busy, otherwise she would have been licking these children. But I think this is a very nice picture.

In the lower picture, Rashma's daughter Isha is posing with Dash, who was a visitor in her home for that afternoon. So she is peering out of the window, as was Dash. He of course was very disconcerted being on the 3rd floor for the first time in his life and the dogs barking outside, made him quite mad and he was trying to get to them. While Isha also decided to get close to him and I took this picture!

yet another family picture

with the peculiar nature of our family, it is usually difficult to get all of us in one frame. so this is really one of those rare ones, taken today, holi-1st march 2010, by saikat. the enticement is a toast! and since none of the dogs know that, they are all vying for it. ofcourse, at the end of this picture, Raga got the booty and left it, for it is beneath her to eat something with is not spread with cheese. ginger is climbing over me in her favourite posture and the rest and wondering when to make the leap. in any case, each one of them jumped-naturally cannot be covered in this picture. but this is really one of those rare ones.

bad breeding or early learner???

what is your view on the matter? This btw is a little Rotteweiler puppy, who i christened Shadow and now the name has struck for want of a better idea! Shadow is held here by Dan, the nephew of Andre...whose puppy he is.

are we being served???

This is a typical scene in our household, when it is time for lunch or dinner. the pack is broken according to this hierarchy- Dash always scares the girls to stay at the door, while he himself is closest to the bowls with the food served in it, whether it is cooling or I am still serving them.

According to Lucy...recorded by her mom

Hunk and the real McCoy

As recorded on October 29, 2009. Event took place near Kali Puja time, 2009.

Place: Village Home, Radha Nagar, Hooghly District, West Bengal

We were in the village home the other morning when it happened. Mom was holding a camera in her hand and taking pictures of Gramps and Payal. Payal is a teacher. Anyways, more about me and Payal later; for now, getting back to the sequence of events of that morning---I was standing somewhere on the newly constructed marble porch where the blissfully unaware humans were standing and getting photographed. Suddenly in one corner (the common boundary with Sabi aunty’s house) I spotted Phoolkumari, stealthily staring at me, curling her body to sit on a heap of leafy dirt. In a millionth of a second I stiffened my body, lowered it to leap in her direction. Mom who was carelessly unaware of the impending brawl and was still finding the right angle on her camera to click Gramps and Payal, suddenly looked as I sped past her in my crouching stance. In the next millisecond, I had pushed the recalcitrant Phoolkumari out of the barbed fence around our home. Phoolkumari wailed and barked, showed her teeth and what not. I for one was enraged but kept my emotions well under control.

On the other end, more trouble was awaiting. Hearing the wails of Phoolkumari, Lalu of the neighboring house (his name is also Lalu, but he is a skinny fella) crossed the boundary and did the unthinkable. He was viciously showing his teeth to my bro Lalu. My bro is polite and not used to the rough ways of a real dog’s life. Bro wasn’t quite sure of how to react to this vicious gesture. Without loosing anymore time in understanding and strategizing, I went straight for the skinny Lalu and threw all my body weight in his direction, showed him a matching pair of teeth. He ran for his life and the ensuing pandemonium got all the spectators (father, Mukto uncle, Jethoo, Mum, Gramps and Grandma) a bit shaken up. Father grabbed the collars of me and bro and took us away from the site of the fight. The neighbors and standing folk started to shout at the erring skinny Lalu (of the neighbor’s house). Mom was still standing with her camera; didn’t know what to do with it. She thought she could have taken good pictures of me getting the intruders, but she couldn’t. It all happened too quickly and it was all so unexpected that Mum couldn’t plan any frame or angle. Had she been less petrified, she could have caught my bravado on reel, especially to show to humans who think looks is all what counts. I know my bro is a hunk but in some situations looks alone cannot deliver. But alas, I have no regrets, just better hopes for the future.

Lesson: Stay focused and calm. Issues related to the line of control of the house cannot be negotiated upon with sadak chaap kuttas (street dwelling dogs), whatever the humans may feel.

guard-dog-guard

Look at this little brat...guarding his roti. Once in awhile I give dry, plain rotis to three of my dogs- GND. All three behave differently with their prize.

Nikki, needless to guess, wastes no time in taking the roti to its natural destination: her stomach. Ginger goes berserk and takes the roti in the true playful retriever fashion all over the house like a crown and when she is tired enough or sufficiently hungry eats it slowly- with no hurry and sometimes Dash shoo-es her away and impounds the roti instead.

But in this picture it is the little hero himself and NO this is not a grabbed roti but his original roti; given to him and him alone only. And mind you, he is not hungry either ...so he is giving mean glances at everyone to scare the hell out of them. As if they are not afraid of him already. I think this glance is particularly directed at Raga- who incidentally would never, never eat a dry roti. But Mr.Dash does not understand that and he really has to scare her with the meanest looks that he can cast in her direction- the little guard-dog, guarding his roti.

Oh btw, these days Dash-aa (as I sometimes refer to him with love) is concerned, he is not wearing his harness as the former one is already used beyond further use and we are awaiting the new ones that are coming from Kolkatta.

posing with my girls this once-

Here I am posing with Raga and Nikki in two separate pictures. Raga the german shepherd and Nikki the labrador and me of course the homo sapien. the other dogs are also around on the front lawn

Nikki, mind you, is quite a handful and a real pleasure to hug. I call her my blood-pressure dog because when you hug her she gives herself so fully into the hug that you really feel the hug-warm, present in the moment and loving.

on the lawn with my girls...and the little boy too-

this is ginger, always demanding her fair share of your love.

effusiveness

Raga is known to be very loving and for showing her love too-in a very mouth-oriented way...without regard for the size of the person to whom the love is directed, or the comfort with which the recipient receives her love. See how it looks in this picture here as my closest friend and her child are subjected to her canine kiss.

patience personified or greed unlimited?!

Much as they are known for their gargantuan appetites, Labradors are also touted to be lazy. At least for various reasons my Nikki has become lazy- partially due to the leg pain and partially coz i got her spayed in an improper manner.

Anyhow, i took this picture yesterday as she lay in the kitchen- a picture of peace, patience and love for food all in one!

nocturnal activity

activity nay action never stops in our canine household. can you imagine what time this must be happening? well the time is well past ten in the evening, we are typically faced with a powercut situation and since sleeping is really tricky in the summer heat inside for us...we are all out in the back lawn- me with the camera and the dogs with a lizard, garden lizard or some such reptile to catch their fancy.

As you can see in this picture here (picture is disturbed due to the artificial lighting from CFL bulbs and the movement of the dogs) they are looking very eagerly in this brick-heap to trace any sort of motion of those reptilian adversaries. In view of the night, Dash is taking the liberty to use his size to the best of his advantage leaving Raga a bit confused!

pea hen

the pea hen here landed on our wall and is looking with curiosity at the three dogs here and the dogs too are frozen in surprise...you can see raga's head, ginger and dash, right behind ginger as a speck of black.

this pea-hen was kind enough to let me get my camera from inside my table and let me click her from various angles in the garden. the dogs were also aghast to see her non-plussed by their noisy barking and excitement.

drain pipe devil

Dash, the dachshund has more stories to report for than all the other dogs for the time being. there is too much of action for me, maybe coz so much is for the first time and then for the small dog that he is...keeping busy is important for himself. there is certainly no question of lazing around like the bigger sized women of his species. moreover, being the only male presence he sure has to keep his eyes on all sides of the house...!!!

you must be told about all the enemies that he has to contend with on a daily basis. on the front side of the house, he has to deal with squirrels and birds who feed at the bowls meant for them. in the garden there are plenty of garden lizards- everyday i am losing some or the other plant or pot! in the back-lawn again he has to keep the birds and more squirrels at bay. lately, there are monkeys straying into the house-mostly on the terraces. he has to object about that quite a bit. inside the house too...lizards keep him on his toes, especially in the guest room and the kitchen. 

most of our afternoons we are in and around the lobby and periodically he jumps and barks at the lizards around. yesterday, between him and nikki they got one and killed it. then i shooed them away and had to send the poor dead thing on its last journey.

now the story for which this entry. on the terrace too, Dash has discovered a hidden presence in the drain pipe!!! and when i took pictures of it yesterday, for i found the whole thing so funny, i decided to name it the drain-pipe devil! the pictures have titles here and they are like this:

1. ok drain pipe devil i know you are there;
2. oh you dare to call out to me;
3. i know you are there...i can see you:)