I have had the pleasure of sharing my home with a German Shepherd dog named Jimmy (Why jimmy? Coz this was the most popular name I have ever heard of for a GSD, no questions raised by parents, period). We were the best of friends, I would come home from school and he’d suddenly stop flirting with the random female dog he was barking and wagging his tail at and go out with me. My home was very close to the station so we were the most punctual, loyal and ardent rail fan’s visiting the station almost every day, sometimes amma and naanna would join us for a post dinner walk. This was nearly at the end of 19th century by the way and it was still meter gauge, fluorescent lights were not widely popular, LED lighting at homes or railway signals was non-existent, only the affluent families had telephones ,...
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televisions and own cars. But there was one thing for sure, the romance of Indian Railways, the red coaches of MG and the semaphore signalling, weirdly noisy engines, parents behind and jimmy by my side. This was my childhood.
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One fine morning, my father, mom and me were supposed to go to Hyderabad to my brother’s place and Jimmy was left at home under the care of our tenant’s family who used to stay in our house premises. The station was very close so we started walking, I don’t know how he even realized we were going somewhere but he was going crazy from an hour before we even left. I couldn’t watch him stay back so we walked soon instead of making it too sad for him, we could hear him barking till the station until he finally stopped. We met Shankar mama and sai baba uncle at the station who were to accompany us till Nizamabad in our MLY YDM-4 hauled Bodhan Passenger on one of their 5 days a week ride. We were merrily chatting while it was raining; I was sad about jimmy but not worried because our caretakers were very nice to him always.
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There was some time before the train would leave and we saw people move about hurriedly outside under the post rain climate, leaves of a neem tree shedding droplets of rain accumulated water. There was also a dog which was behaving rather weirdly, getting into and out of coaches, yelping in pain while getting shooed or being hit by something by people in the coaches, completely wet and kind of skinny, he was evidently scared. This dog reminded me of Jimmy and I was feeling really sad to stay far from him, this was the first time I was to leave him for 2 weeks. I already cried the night before, but my mother patiently explained how important it was to attend my eldest cousin’s wedding, like I care.
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Then it happened, in a while, I saw jimmy, he was wet too, he came running in and looked in either direction probably confused to decide on a choice for his course of action. He has been to the station many times, with me or us-his family of course, never alone. He was barking madly and running along the train’s length looking confused, angry, and sad or whatever a man would feel if in that position. My parents were surprised and shocked and we went out, the time that followed was pure bliss, we went home and evidently I wasn’t there in any wedding pictures. To this day, I always am reminded of Jimmy whenever I see other similar looking dogs in railway stations, or probably I love trains coz I had an emotional mark around them with jimmy, and we both react the same to the Buffalo like sounding YDM-4 Horn.
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About 6 years later, after I joined flying school, Jimmy left this world to go to the dog heaven (and in all probability is now happily flirting with female Dog angels, if they exist that is). But I proudly say that he had taught me to love selflessly and showed how endlessly it can be showered on someone/something. Thanks Jimmy and Bodhan Passenger, for being around. I miss you both.
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P.S: I don’t quite like the BG Bodhan Passenger.
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And thanks a lot for reading.