Page 20 - Memoirs of Sarasworthy Somasundaram

Sentha, Shankaran and Daya outside their house in
Bangkok, 1965

Daya and Shankaran
When we eventually moved to Amara-Giri, Shankaran wished to have a puppy of his own.
He had an innate passion for rearing dogs, cats, birds etc, etc. But since the Bangkok days,
he had not been able to indulge in it up to then. I asked him to go in for a good breed. He
was delighted and started looking around for an Alsatian puppy.

But one fine day, Daya cycling back from from hospital, came in with a miserable looking,
half starved puppy. “Amma”, he said “Someone has abandoned this puppy on the road.
Shankaran can bring her up.”

Poor Shankaran. He looked aghast at the miserable specimen, wriggling on the ground: the
vision of a handsome, well trained Alsatian receded into perhaps a distant future. To cap it
all, Daya named her Meenachi!

5
However, the story had a happy ending. Bhishma , a handsome cross Alsatian is the son of
Heone and Meena herself though small turned out to be a lady of poise and breeding.

5 More about Bhishma can be found on page 31

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