(May 1998)
Ajay Sathyanath
During my rather long kernel builds and compilations, I have often pondered on the question of perspective. No sooner do I go ahead in that direction, do I stumble upon something very common as being a canine.
Imagine a title like "suppressed dogs in USA" !! Now thats a little way out of common sense. It makes a common mongr(u)el out of nothing huh. Through a lot of insight and what you call canine discernity, it is rather easy to find out what the other dog is thinking!! I met a very suppressed dog the other day in my office. By the looks of him I knew he wanted to chew whatever fleshy remains my body reflected in his eyes. But, there he was showing great restraint and setting an example of self discipline, if not for anything at least to go back home in the car his master brought him in.
Suppressed beyond doubt, hampered by a human society and chained by their tongue, these dogs are not allowed to bark in USA. There is too much to loose, momentary acoustical passion would not just over weigh the good food and the regular anti-tick dose they could receive.
And, so they sleep dreaming of a free world, a demo-crazy where a dogs' world wouldn't be much different from a man's. A place somewhere diametrically opposite to this longitude and solitude!! A place called INDIA, where every dog can bark, whimper, or even bray if dogly ethics allowed one to do that. Where the difference between the "seen" and the "chewed" bore little or no sense. Where flowers welcomed the unforeseen spurt on a hot summer's day. Some place where a dog might just have a career as a ROCK star, a place where little boys were fun to chase around and an occasional bite of the butt was worth risking the rocks that might just land later!!
What was left of here? No seeming rock band, no one to bark to, and a place where bitches were hard to find. Worst of all, having to live in a world where the phrase "as silent as a DOG" was becoming popular. Dragging their souls in a world were they were the icons of insult, like in "that guy is a dog, he just can't open his mouth".