Find someone who is a Bigger Bad Ass than you

A few minutes ago I was thinking to myself, “Life has been good”. It may not have favored me for a long time but today I feel like I’m world champion. Let me tell you why I feel so great. This is not for everyone. This story of triumph is mainly for one person to read and I know you are reading this Praveen.

For the readers, Praveen is the guy who killed our dog. As is the case with people who kill dogs, we never thought of Praveen as a threat to our happiness. He was an old family friend’s son who relocated to our neighborhood after getting fired from his job at a soap factory. Yes what kind of person wants to work in a soap factory firstly! He told us that he never married and we never ever heard him laugh. I think those two reasons fed into each other.

Why did he kill our dog? It started at a card game night in our house. I hate playing cards. After losing my eyesight at age 12, I’ve also lost all the subsequent card games too. It is during card games that I have to hear my worried mum say things like, “You used to be a card champion when you could see. That’s why you should have drunk milk. I told you!”. Indian parents react to your failures in the most reassuring way by simply saying, “I told you”.

But life was not that bad too. During one of our game nights, I met this amazing girl whom I liked. Her name was Nita. She sounded beautiful and had the best vibe a person could have. I felt good being around her. Everyone kept telling me things like “she’s going to leave you for a guy who can see”. But I was not worried. I was different and I knew she won’t find anyone like me. I didn’t see other people as a threat.

I told you this before, I didn’t even see Praveen as a threat. There were certainly some red flags about Praveen like once when he knew I liked Nita he said, “Does she call you Love”. I said, “No why do you ask?” and he replied “because love is blind”.

So now you know Praveen and Nita. Back to my story. One night we were all playing a game of cards when my dog, Snapper got angry with Praveen and started barking at him. I managed to silence Snapper and sent him to the other room. But later that night, Praveen started getting close to Nita and each time he tried making a move, my dog Snapper started barking.

As a blind man, you do not know if someone is hitting on your woman which is why I had snapper trained by an expert. Praveen was keen as ever because snapper was constantly barking that entire night. Each time Snapper Barked, I held Nita in my arms and pulled her closer to me. She smelled beautiful and she kissed me or snuggled in my arms. I was so lucky. Stupid Praveen, how on earth will Nita ever like you! Praveen was mad at Snapper and was saying things like “no wonder you’re a dog”. At least my dog didn’t work in a soap factory.

We finished our game night and I walked Praveen to the door. Nita was staying back at my house. As I was walking him to our door, I heard a metallic item fall to the floor. I knew what it was but I just said, “I think I heard a pair of keys fall, was it yours or mine”. “Mine”, Praveen replied in his sinister tone. I knew it was not a pair of keys. I had a bad feeling about this. I feared for snapper. Before he went out of the door I asked him to wait as I had to let Snapper out of our home through the back door so that he can go poop. I went back inside to do the same and returned to open the door for Praveen. I then went back to Nita who by this time was already in my room getting ready to sleep.

In the morning I was woken up by Parsuram, our Driver who said that our dog was dead. I smiled. I knew Praveen was an idiot. I didn’t let snapper out. Snapper was locked safely in the other room. I let the other Dog, Toughie out for Praveen to Kill. Toughie was ailing for the last 3 months with cancer. We didn’t want her to suffer and actually wanted to put her to sleep. Toughie looked exactly like Snapper. Praveen with the intention of harming us actually freed Toughie from her pain.

Praveen never showed up to our house again. He was probably ashamed of killing a Dog as he should be. Nita and I got married after seeing each other for 3 years. Snapper was with us for a long time and then died of old age. After many years, we heard that Praveen had gotten bitten by a Dog and was sick. He was 60 years old and had no one to take care of him. We bought him a postcard and I asked Nita to write “heard you were bitten during the day. Remember every Dog has his day”. But Nita was sensible and considerate enough to change the words to “HAHAHA IDIOT! Hope you Die!”.

I knew I’d love Nita but not that much as I did that day. I hope you find your Nita in life.

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