"Siva Looks After Me"

I was on my way back from Sri Ramana Grocery Store when I turned into my street and looked around for my doggo friend. Where is she? I wondered. Sometimes she was there, sometimes not.

As I pulled up on the scooter, I noticed an unusually large pack of dogs maybe seven or eight including three tiny puppies. I stopped and just stood there for a moment, watching the scene.

Paw patrol.

So many doggos. I looked around and spotted my friend, she was asleep on a big pile of crushed rock in front of a construction site, just behind a gate. I knew what I had to do.

I popped open my scooter seat and pulled out a 1KG packet of dog food. As soon as I started opening it, they all came over. I dropped little piles on the ground, everyone gets fed.

I tried coaxing my doggo friend out from behind the gate, but she was shy. I tossed a bit of food over the fence, and she wandered over to sniff it. When she saw me coming around the side to find her, she lit up and ran toward me.

While this was all happening, three Indian guys walked over.

I greeted them with an “Om Namah Shivaya” which always catches them off guard.

They looked like they were from out of town.

“Bro, where are you from?” one of them asked.

“Australia,” I said.

They laughed. “We’re from India,” one replied.

“Yeah, I figured that,” I smiled. “But where in India?”

“Andhra,” one said. The others didn’t seem to speak much English.

I asked how long they were in Tiru. "Last night, we arrived” he said. “And you?”

“About six months.”

They looked shocked.

“You don’t have a job in Australia?”

“Nope,” I said. “Nothing to go back to.”

“So how do you get paid?”

I laughed and pointed to the sky.

“Siva looks after me.”

They laughed too. I think they thought I was joking. But I wasn’t.

I walked off to feed my doggo friend and stepped inside the construction site.

They walked away.