IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT 152 – WHO IS THE DOG? Brig PS Gothra (Retd)

  Not very long ago, beside a very important sea, there was a very large desert.

Three animals lived there: a rich Camel, sitting on more oil than water. A proud Persian Leopard, whose spots never changed. And a Fox, smaller than everybody else, but with sharp teeth and an even sharper brain.

For years, the Camel and the Leopard fought each other. And the Fox slept peacefully.

Then, one morning in March 2023, the Fox looked out and saw the Leopard was drinking tea with the Camel. A Panda had invited them both to Beijing, poured the tea himself, and made them shake hands.

The Fox rang up his oldest friend, the Eagle across the ocean.

“We have a problem. The Leopard has made peace.”

There was a long pause.

“Isn’t peace a good thing?”

“Today the Leopard drinks tea with the Camel. Tomorrow the others will join them. And one day, they will make your dollars worthless.”

The Eagle stopped smiling.

Seven months later, on 7 October 2023, a Mongoose living just across the Fox’s fence attacked him without warning. The Fox was furious. He spun around to face the Leopard.

“That’s YOUR friend!”

The Leopard shrugged. “My friend, yes. My servant, no.”

Soon a Porcupine in the northern hills started shooting quills over the fence as well.

The Fox hit back, hard. The Eagle flew in to help him. And stones began landing near the Leopard’s own den.

The Leopard did some quick maths. Fighting the Fox and the Eagle together would be foolish. So he remembered a story his grandfather used to tell.

A farmer had a cow that refused to give milk. He begged her, pushed her and pulled her. Nothing worked. So one day, the farmer tied his dog in front of the cow, and every time the cow refused, he beat the dog. The dog howled. The cow panicked. And the milk came.

  The Leopard’s whiskers twitched. If you can’t scare the cow, make the dog scream.

He looked around the desert. There was no shortage of dogs. He assessed that if he used the stick called Hormuz, the dogs would scream. Then he realised that a Jackal living beside the sea had another stick called the Bab al-Mandab Strait. That could make the rest of the dogs scream too. And the  trouble started drifting towards the Camel’s own tent.

The Camel stormed over to the Leopard. “I am choked because of YOUR friends!”

The Leopard coolly said, “My friends, yes. My servants, no.”

The Camel had heard that line before. Somewhere. Quite recently.

He narrowed his eyes.

“Tell me something. In your grandfather’s story… who is the dog?”

“Depends.”

The Camel gulped. “And the farmer?”

The Leopard looked at the Fox,  Eagle and his own reflection.

“That, my friend, is the job everybody here is fighting for.”

Meanwhile, sitting under the only wall in the desert, the Panda went on munching bamboo.

Nobody threw stones at him. Nobody shot quills at him. Nobody touched his ships.

He was far too busy selling things to everybody. Including the stones.

Just then an Indian Elephant came lumbering up the road, pulling an oil tanker. The road was blocked.

“Who started all this?” he asked.

Silence.

“Fine,” sighed the Elephant. “Then who is winning?”

Every single animal pointed at himself.

Then the Elephant looked at the price board at the petrol pump.

“Strange. You are all winning……and I am paying.”

The Panda stopped chewing. He strolled over, all smiles.

“Petrol expensive?”

“Very.”

The Panda’s smile grew wider.

“Have you considered an electric car? I have one to sell you.”

The Elephant could see the caption on the wall behind the Panda:

न कश्चित् कस्यचिन्मित्रं न कश्चित् कस्यचिद् रिपुः ।

अर्थतस्तु निबध्यन्ते मित्राणि रिपवस्तथा ॥

— महाभारत, शान्तिपर्व

“There are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.

Friends and enemies arise from considerations of interest.”

— Mahabharata, Shanti Parva

The Elephant read it twice and said to the Panda.

“Now I understand “why you hadn’t taken anybody’s side.”

The Panda smiled.

“I have. Mine.”

Jai Hind.

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