Match-Fixing:Doggy Style!

On match-fixing:I wrote this for The Tribune 10 years back. Fixing pugnacity
By : Rajbir Deswal
THE news on the TV was on. My little puppy, Micky, lay curled on the carpet in my study, with a soft cushion under him in a corner from where he always has the TV in view. The headlines included information on match-fixing. More news followed. Micky’s eyebrows started doing a sea-saw, one up, the other down. But rubbing his snout against the wall, he fixed his eyes on the TV screen. News in detail followed and Micky lent his attentive antenna-like ears to the newscast.
With a jerk he sat on his haunches, sighed with more rapidity, sniffed a little, sneezed and left the room. I was amazed at this sudden change of mood in Micky and followed him. He was in conversation with the neighbours pet Snoopy. Good Lord! Do animals really talk? I couldn’t believe my ears and rubbed my eyes to know if I wasn’t actually watching a story being enacted out of Panchtantra.
“What rubbish, there is no animality left in these human beings and particularly the ones who are said to be living the spirit of the sports, day in and day out! “Micky spat out his disgust and articulated his criticism of the match-fixer cricketers. Even snoopy was red with rage. “Did you also hear that-unbelievable?” said he.
The debate began in a corner of the lounge and I went behind the curtains hiding myself, more out of shame and less out of curiosity, on knowing that the animals too talk, talk sense and can target the human beings raising an accusing finger at their conduct.
“Snoopy dear, now please tell me,when we pounce upon each other and fight, do we not fight with our heart and soul? When we frown at each other, from a distance, do we not have all the contempt and venom spewed in full measure? When we bark at each other on the sides of our respective fences, do we not almost tear our vocal chords to empty our disgust completely? When I hear you barking at a stranger in the house, do I not join you in the duet and our collective endeavour deters the house breaker, who leaves with a resolve to find some other house, where the likes of us, sincere fellows, aren’t there to chase or even bark to caution the landlord or the master? Micky hurled a volley of questions.
An eavesdropping me could not believe he was making those assertions to bring home the point of sticking to certain norms of decent behaviour, even while fighting. And fighting for a cause or even without a cause, as animals do. For once, I experienced as if Manoj Prabhakar was speaking through the pet in my house.
Now it was the turn of Snoopy: “Oh yaar Micky, I was, the other day witness to a cockfight in the back street where the labour class lives and regularly enjoys the pleasure of brawls. These cocks, true to their salt bury their long, sharpened-with-zeal-to-win bills, into the flesh of the adversary. For whose pleasure? After all, is it not for the human beings around, or else theirs is not the property dispute being settled then? The screams of these cocks can scare even pussy aunt Mano as also our Blackie uncle in the household of the street-Dada, the gangster. I have seen blood oozing out of the torn skin and plucked feathers of the fighting duo, confirming that they did not spare any milder or kinder thoughts while fighting, for their enemy.
Micky became all the more serious when he said: “ It is only the film actors who indulge in a blood-chilling fight but wise people know that it is a mock fight only, and everybody knows that they are paid for that. But when the entire country, nay the entire world, knows that it is a sport in right earnestness, how con they afford to go astray, and instead of being true to the pitch, develop an itch on their palms. Chi-Chi-Chi. I don’t think doomsday is any far! Remember Punit Issar? Even during a mock fight, he became a little more serious and unmindfully punched Amitabh Bachchan a little too hard.”
All this while Snoopy had become a little easy with himself. Even Micky’s coaxing did not tickle him anymore. It sounded to Micky as if Snoopy was becoming somewhat practical and he exhorted Snoopy: “I can sense you are going to make some kind of a confession as confirmed to me when I evoked my sixth sense!”
Snoopy smiled and collected the trickling saliva in his mouth and said: “Well, my friend, being true to ourselves, let us admit that whenever strangers or intruders throw a bone at us, we not only are up for grabs but wag our tails also in gratitude.” Micky shared the sense of sincerity and honesty and questioned meekly, almost whispering in Snoopy’s ears: “But when do we use cell-phones to strike a deal with the go betweens, bookies and brokers”. And even if you use them, how are they going to prove it? A mere denial should set at rest all the controversy,” Snoopy quipped and noticing me hear the canine conversation he cautioned Micky: Hey, your master!” Immediately they gathered themselves and started a fight, barking, howling, grunting, woofing, as if they were the sworn enemies of each other. Yes, at least they should appear to be on logger heads with each other not at all even suggesting fixing their pugnacity at whatever cost! I tried to scrape my dog-sense to understand human-behaviour but couldn’t.

Photo credit:http://www.ldjackson.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/dogfight1.jpg