Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Mad Dogs and a White woman

The title of my post is inspired by the title of the autobiography of Crystal Rogers. The autobiography is called – Mad Dogs and an Englishwoman. On one of my tours around the city, I saw this extraordinary sight for which I couldn’t find a more apt caption – Mad Dogs and a White woman:


I took this shot from hundreds of meters away with a zoom lens which is why the images are not as sharp as I would have liked them to be. Clicking pictures from close quarters may have made the trio conscious of a stranger. Also, my behavior would have been outright intrusive, so I decided to intrude from meters away.... what to do, the temptation was too much.... !


When I passed by the trio and was within earshot, I heard the lady humming. The melody, in a flash transported me back to my Class V school room where we learnt Wordsworth’s – The Solitary Reaper. The sense of melancholy in the lady’s tune was akin to the sense I got from the poem two decades back! It would be charitable to say that I was “amazed”. It was more than that, I do not have the appropriate words. Like connecting to a forgotton thread.

I am sure the lady was not English (I have reasons to think she was from Israel), so I think it is fair to call her the “white woman”. The dogs are “mad” because I think all dogs are mad. To my mind, dogs are one of the craziest creations of Nature. Crazy, coz they are capable of snuggling up to you even if you have shouted at them. Crazy, coz they are capable of protecting you even if you have been mean to them. Crazy, coz they are capable of dropping their egos and apologizing first. And, crazy coz they are capable of listening unconditionally to your melancholic strains....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, which part of the city was this? inside the city?

ambrosia said...

KD - This is a rocky spot outside the city.

ambrosia said...

.... and I must add these dogs are stray dogs - not house pets of the lady. i think some people can just connect naturally with dogs!

Anonymous said...

Very nice post!

I was hoping you would write soon. I totally agree with you...there are some people who can just connect naturally with dogs.

Keep writing!

Absolutely Serendipitous said...

The picture looks awesome. Something about it...it speaks.

Mukta Dutta said...

A very good composition. If it were a clearer one it would have been awesome.

Urmila said...

The shot looks ethereal, mysterious. How could you be on the right spot at the right time to capture this.... priceless scene. Seems to me as if God, crazy as the Dogs are, conspired to send you there. Awsome really.

ambrosia said...

Hello Munchmany, Twisted, Curved Line, and Urmila.... thank you for your comments and for appreciating the picture. I so much wish the pictures were sharper. Before the trio perched themselves on the rock, I noticed the two dogs moving with the lady just like body guards - walking a few steps behind, yet not walking in the same line as her. And the lady seemed to be having a full on communication with the dogs! I found out that she is a regular visitor to the park and the dogs have taken to her :-)