Compassion

While sitting in my favorite street chai place in Kulyipalam, I was able to observe this elderly lady who uses a walking stick to get around town. She appears to have many stops in her day, and one is sitting on the side of the road having her tea from a pot that she was carrying around. She carefully found a place and sat down, pouring the tea from her container.

The dog wandered up beside her. She is old, lame and has obviously been through her share of accidents. Her left hip is damaged and she is starving for food and one suspects affection as well. This is a street dog – there are so many. They must survive on their wits and the ability to scrounge food from wherever.  Few live to old age.

On this day, this lady shared her tea with the dog. She poured a small amount onto the pavement where the dog licked it up. She did this twice offering a small token of life to this poor animal.

A few days after this picture was taken, the dog was run over with her leg fractured and bleeding.  In poor, rural India, veterinarians are few and far between and street dogs do not warrant such attention. She will simply gradually fade away as she bleeds to death. This is a harsh reality in a country where people are also starving in poverty.

Our Western sensibilities are offended. Life is short and for those left to survive at the margins, people or dogs, there is so little to draw them when tragedy strikes.

This woman gave this dog compassion. Such a gift from someone with so little herself to a life that had so little left in it.