RUBY, HORLICKS, MANI

 RUBY, HORLICKS, MANI

This is another instant of 1961-62 at Srirangapatna of Mysore. I was in PU C and my brother was a school boy in Trichy. We were in a rented house -a subunit of a two structure building. Both the houses were in a common compound and ours was a rear segment, while the house owners were in the frontal segment. The place was quite comfortable well shaded  and guarded by their watch dog Ruby. Ruby was held shackled by chain in her kennel house made of wood.           Through best part of the day Ruby would be lying all limbs stretched. When some noise of opening the door was heard, Ruby would raise head half-heartedly with partly open eyes to see if someone came by. If some stranger was seen, Ruby would ferociously bark and try to unshackle self in a bid to pounce on the intruder. By 8.00 pm, the door would be locked and Ruby let free to roam around. She would keep vigil through the night and would go to kennel house by 7.00 am daily. Until brought under chain, Ruby would not permit anyone enter the premises. My brother Mani [was extremely mischievous], who had come down on quarterly holidays had a tough time entering the house until the house owners physically held Ruby under check. Regulated by her boss, Ruby stayed quiet. But, every time Mani was seen, Ruby would turn violent displaying all teeth signaling a warning of Kilo bite[kilo=1000].  [Kilo byte is a computer terminology of referring to volume ] a learned borrowing from computer language to imply 1000 bites. Curiously Mani was not daunted by Ruby’s violent gestures. We were worried for Mani’s safety from the ferocious Ruby.

On 4^th day of Mani’s arrival around 7.00 am Ruby was like a tamed circus animal fully obedient to Mani’s instructions. When I asked Mani, as to how he contained Ruby, he just smiled and said nothing. By around 2.00 pm the same afternoon, Mani went to the kennel and released Ruby. The animal was dancing around Mani, as if possessed by a magic spell.

Like a stealthy cat, Mani moved into the kitchen across my mother’s shoulder and brought the Horlicks bottle. He scooped a spoonful of Horlicks powder and laid it in a line on the floor. Ruby quickly started licking the powder and lifted everything off the floor. When she had physically removed the powder, she was profusely salivating and her saliva was dripping uncontrollably. Suddenly, a strange change was noticed of Ruby.

 Yes, lifting her head like the antenna of a radar, she was trying to free her mouth of the mound of Horlicks that had firmly stuck to the roof of her mouth. Just as we humans get restless upon betel nut pieces getting lodged between teeth, Ruby was too busy wiping off the Horlicks mound from the mouth roof by using saliva and tongue. Ruby was obviously delighted by a tasty paste rich in aroma stuck to her upper mouth roof. For removing it Ruby was making circular motions even as she was making efforts to unlock the Sticky Horlicks. Literally, circular motions of body were natural consequences of trying hard to clear the mouth off this nemesis-like bond between Horlicks and her mouth roof. Now, I realized that Mani had floored the animal by offering a very tasty stuff that the animal had not tasted in her life till then. For the sheer delight of the taste the animal dropped her ferocious postures to Mani.

My mom was terribly angry that Mani had fed the dog with such a prestigious stuff like Horlicks. Those were days when Horlicks and Ovaltine were held Royal Beverages. She shouted “no idiot would waste Horlicks on dogs”. Mani said, “if Horlicks is finished we can buy it; if I am finished by Dog bite, where will you buy me? “Mani is not a cheap stuff to buy from somewhere”.  Ultimately, Ruby readily obeyed Mani more than to her genuine masters. Mani, also had the habit replying word for word to anyone.   

Prof. K. Raman