Tornado Bairavaa: Story Of His Aftermath

By Sruthi Prabu

In my house, it's not every day you find a half-chewed TV remote, bits of newspaper, toys, and towels on our floor. Not to mention the poop he left outside! An extra chore among his other artwork. And amidst all the chaos, I see a black, medium-sized oblong figure hiding under the sofa, casually holding and chewing my sister's favourite black T-shirt and I saw my dad's underwear ruined with his slobber.

I was in total shock and horrified at the sight of our living room in shambles. Bairavaa (named by my dad, after an Indian God) who is a year old Black Labrador, locked eyes with me. The moment he saw me standing by the door, he could sense my irritation at the sight of the mess.

I just came upstairs from my long evening tea time with our Cockatiel couple: Nala & Veera. They live with my grandma, my aunt and my niece on the first floor of our home. This has been my routine ever since I am at home during COVID season. Before I left downstairs at 4.10 p.m., I informed my sister Veena, who was half asleep, to watch over him for a while. But what I didn’t expect was that she was still asleep with Bairavaa trashing the place outside.

After a short stare-down contest with him, I went to the bedroom and yelled at my sister, who was still asleep. As I was explaining the mess he made, she looked spaced-out, still sleepy. Suddenly, I felt a shadow following me with curious brown eyes. I gave him a sharp look and turned to my sister, who immediately got up and ran to see the aftermath of ‘Tornado Bairavaa’. The moment she got up to storm out, he scurried out and hid under the sofa. Oh, Veena was so furious.

Bairavaa! A shriek came from the living room. Veena looked under the sofa to him next to her chewed favourite T-shirt. Quickly, she grabbed her dress while yelling, “Why are you doing this to us? If dad saw this mess, he will not let you inside the house anymore!” I was already so dizzy at the sight, so I stood by the bedroom door to see my sister crouched on the floor yelling. With a slight headache, I sensed that it's time for me to clean the mess before my dad comes home. Before Veena yells even more, I walked outside to clean his poop and laid a fresh floor mat for him to pee on it later. I see my sister still upset, cleaning the mess inside with him following her around. He calmly looked at her while she picks up the other dirty clothes and his toys.

Bairavaa fears a lot of things at our house. His gates, his hunting stick, buckets and mugs, vacuum cleaner, spray bottles, mosquito bat and coils: these are his weakness which we used to scare him into obeying us (which works every time). After cleaning outside, I saw her frantically searching for the closest scare material: the mosquito bat on the dining table. She turned it on to scare him out from the sofa. The moment she picked up the bat, he immediately scurried himself towards the door, while banging against the underside of the sofa. He saw my sister holding the bat and activated his Fear mode. For a while, Veena was scolding and taunting him with that bat. All of a sudden, something came over Bairavaa. Instantly, he activated his ‘Zoomies Mode’. I wanted to laugh when I saw him run from the bat’s wrath like Tom running from Spike. But I can't, not when my sister is mad at him!

Now, I know I should also be in rage and yelling at him for the extra work he gave us. But, I know it’s of no use, as I have done this plenty of times. Needless to say, sometimes you need to have some patience with all animals and calmly teach them to obey you. It was also apparent that Veena always loses her cool when Bairavaa barks for no reason. Especially when he needs to be chained just for a few hours. As for me, I trained myself to stay calm, because, I know why he barks non-stop at some intervals. As I have somewhat learned his language, he has four barking modes: Alert mode, Fear mode, Hunger mode and ‘Let me inside’ mode. His alert mode is when strangers enter home, Fear mode is when he is terrified of fireworks, sirens etc. Hunger mode is when we fail to feed him at the right time. Finally, Let me inside mode always happen after noon, where he keeps barking nonstop until I free him from his chains. After he got tired from zooming around the house, we cleaned the rest of the rooms and hid all of the evidence.

It was almost 5.30 p.m. After a tiring work, I relaxed with my phone, while my sister leaves downstairs to have coffee. An hour later, my dad came home from office and rang the doorbell. Bairavaa sensed his presence and welcomed him home, wagging his furry tail. After my dad came inside, he stood outside and in an instant, slumps to the floor swishing head slowly and looking at us with his innocent eyes. I noticed his signature ‘good boy’ moves he makes only in front of my dad and said, “Why are you acting like a good boy now? This is an Oscar-level acting, my dear”. My dad gave him a sharp look, chuckled while sitting on a chair to watch the evening news on TV. He already sensed that Bairavaa has already made a huge mess, and is acting like a good boy in front of him, but he chose to ignore it.

As the dusk fell, Bairavaa slowly came inside and slumped to the floor to take a short nap. While he rests, I sat on the sofa admiring him lovingly. After all the adventures he had today, my baby napped on the floor breathing slowly and twitching his nose. And all I could think is that ‘Sleep, my sweetheart. My cute & furry, little ‘Tornado Bairavaa’.

By Sruthi Prabu