Theloopylululog

I am not a pet parent yet. I wish I were but I live with a family that is not pet friendly. So sadly my dream of being a pet mother still remains a dream.

But God has been kind in blessing me with a singular yet indelible experience of living under the shade of the unconditional love of a beautiful animal. Even if it lasted a mere 30 minutes. I am still living off the afterglow.

This is Shemru. And here is our story.

The year was 2014. October was shedding its weight.

I was in the middle of yet another package tour with a travel company that specializes in them. It was my second one with them and as usual I had isolated myself from the group and sat alone, mesmerized by everything whizzing past my window.

The silence amongst mountains hurtling towards Heaven, the snow on the cone of their summits, the snaking rivers skirting past the bottom of the mountains into nameless vales and villages and the sun playing peek-a-boo with the tall and mighty deodars; these are emotions beyond description.

The closest I have felt to God is when I was at the feet of the Himalayas trying in vain to pin point the exact spot where they touched the skies. It was a never ending task I had set for myself every time the bus journeyed in the vicinity of the mountain ranges. Needless to say, I failed at it but it always made me happy and rearing to go.

Certain creations of Nature are meant to be fathomless. And so they should remain.

One particular nippy morning of the week turned out to be a shimmering surprise. An unexpected stopover.

Apple orchards on one side and a sheer drop into a valley on the other. Hopping off the bus with the silence of the trees for company, the group was asked to hike up a trail. The surprise was apparently at the end of the hike.

It was a fairly steep hike and soon I left behind everyone else. The crunch of my sneakered feet pierced the eerie silence that loomed around me. Suddenly I sensed someone behind me. Scared, I came out of my reverie. I stood still and looked back like a shivering kitty.

That moment is still etched in my heart with the glow of a million fireflies. In a matter of a single second I joined the hallowed company of fellow humans who have fallen in love at first sight.

The kindest, warmest pair of brown eyes in my planet smiled back at me. As if asking me to continue my hike, they prodded me to move. My heart was so overwhelmed with love that I had completely forgotten where I was. In the middle of a forest, that’s where!

To this day I brag about this. The only time I fell for someone at first sight!

For a Bhotia, Shemru was small. Handsome and middle-aged, the odd streaks of white tugged my heart strings. The violins in my head were already playing a symphony.

The next 20 minutes were a blur. We walked together as our feet conducted an orchestra for the wise old Himalayan cedars lining the sides of the trial.

At the end of the tiring hike was a natural cave. A lone man with a tiny torch asked me to roll up my jeans and step into the water.

Wait, what?

A dark cave. Knee deep water. Did I mention there was no one else around? The lone man assured me that he was a priest. And that the cave was actually a temple!

I turned around to look for Shemru. He had sprawled on the floor next to the cave acting as if he had dozed off! Well, I could say he was out!

With a very deep sigh, I went in with the man. The disadvantage of being the fittest one in a group tour is that you are the first to reach everywhere. Usually waiting for the others to catch up. And I suck at the waiting game.

I am clautrophobic and fear gripped me but I didn’t let the man feel it.

And lo and behold! What do I see!

Stalactites!

My first! I had to become a Japanese contortionist to look at everything inside but the spell binding formations created due to the onslaught of dripping water on rock resembled an array of Indian Gods!

There was an Elephant faced Ganesha and a very life like huge Shiv Linga, that still manage to reside in my memory palace. It was too damp and humid to stay inside for long. So I was out in a jiffy.

Shemru was up, bounding about as he leapt in joy when he saw me coming out. For a while, until the rest of the group hiked up and did a tour of the cave, I sat beside Shemru. Time stood still for us and we waltzed in our love.

It was time to go. Obviously I didn’t want to. I knew I will never see Shemru again. But we all end up doing what life forces us to do. So with my heart weeping tears for a stranger I met half hour ago, I hopped on to the bus.

But I couldn’t sit still when those deep brown eyes looked at me with such sadness from the other side of the window. I quickly got down and hugged Shemru for that one and only time and squeezed the wild flowers I had plucked a while ago into his paw. A quick pic later I was on my way hiding back tears that refused to pay heed to my pleas.

Ever so often I look back at this picture of me looking at the camera and Shemru looking at my hand holding the tiny flower. For the longest time that picture graced my Facebook page. I was the only Lalitha with the Bhotia on its search pages!

One look at the picture takes me back to that mountain road somewhere in Uttarkashi and sweeps me into the warm golden hug of a brown eyed Bhotia all over again, whose unconditional love still burns bright in an unbroken part of my heart.

Shemru was an embodiment of the divine. A soul that loved without owning, gave without expecting, walked without leaning, admired without possessing and left without regret.

It’s the only avatar of love that didn’t break me, shake me or weaken me to my bones.

Steady, comforting and never fading, it only glows brighter with each passing day.

Uintl that moment, Shemru didn’t know me at all and I loved dogs but only from a distance.

Our encounter changed everything for me. We came to each other as strangers and left as soulmates. Healing each other in unexpected ways.

Shemru came. Shemru loved. Shemru let me go.

Just like that, Shemru unassumingly fixed my broken self in a way no human ever can.