Summary of Chapter - 2.

Unknown to Dawa, he has another inheritance from his previous life – a strong desire for travel. The translator’s desire to travel remained unfulfilled till his last breath, but it manifested itself in Dawa. He wondered what lay beyond the Paro valley and was fascinated by the overhead flying planes disappearing into the mountains.

One hot summer afternoon Dawa asked Moley, one of the most ancient and wisest of the dogs in Paro, what lay beyond the Paro valley. Moley liked Dawa for his intelligence and spent the next hour or so talking about her noble lineage and descendants. Dawa regretted having asked the question to her and thought about the time when he proposed to Singyemo, the pretty and flirtatious bitch, but was rejected due to his lack of pedigree. First time he heard the word (breed). He was so heart-broken that he made up one and came to be more confident of it with the passage of time. His great grandpa was a damchi, who was stolen by a vulture and raised on a stiff rock head. Unfortunately, he had a stunted growth because of the vulture food. Rescued by a sheepherder, he was presented to an aristocratic lady, who liked the way he was. So great grandpa had the daily diet of a handful of barley flour along with some butter tea. This may be the reason why Dawa inherited the family trait of being quite small in size. He preferred not to share this the story of his lineage, unless he had to. There were sceptics like the big dog, Nadola, who always had a glint of mischief in his eye whenever he heard Dawa talking about his ancestry. He invariably asked Dawa if his great grandpa walked or flew.

Moley enlightened him about the world beyond and propelled him towards Thimphu. With Thimphu as his destination, Dawa hit the road. As per Moley’s instructions, when he crossed the bridge and passed the check post, a policeman shooed him away. Inspite of the hurt, he took it as a great omen.

He soon found himself surrounded by a group of mean-looking dogs. But Dawa was far too intelligent to challenge them. He put his tail between his hind legs, hung his head low in submission. They left him taking him for a coward and remarking that a county bumpkin like him would not survive in Thimphu for long.

It was a close save. Dawa,all shook up, yet had to act fast to get to the big gathering in Doebam Lam, he had heard the dogs talking about. He started following the furry dog with the brown tail. As he reached near the market, the delicious smell of the meat made him realize that he had not eaten almost for a whole day. Despite his growling stomach, he decided to move ahead and not to scavenge. He was destined to go to the big gathering.

Dawa narrowly escaped being run over by the onrushing traffic as he tried to cross the street. With his adrenaline all jumpy, he had finally made it to Thimphu. He remembered his mother’s advice of never losing sight of the tail in times of emergencies. Sadly for her, when the time came she seemed to have forgotten to take care of her tail!

He reached a large concrete area at last and knew that he was at the right place. An overwhelming smell of meat permeated the air. Dawa was relishing a piece of meat thrown at him by the disloyal meat shop workers. The restless nervousness around him was due to the dog leader having been taken to the pound earlier that day. Someone asked Dawa to lead the howling. Grabbing this god-send opportunity,Dawa took his stance, inhaled deeply, remembered his late family and then keeping his eyes on the moon, let out a majestic howl. All the dogs joined him in his magical howling. Dawa was here to stay.

To be continued .....