It was a strange phenomenon that I witnessed sometime ago. Though a considerable period has elapsed since, I am still confounded and have not been able to untangle the mystery despite the explanation given by some. The element of suspense in what I experienced still haunts me.
I had gone to stay for a few days with a close relative in another city. His house was located quite close to a railway track on one of India’s major trunk routes. As such, a number of trains, both passenger and goods trains, used the route the whole day.
For the first few days, I was disturbed by the frequent passing of trains and their loud roar. The mandatory whistling by the locomotives in populated areas only compounded my problem. I found it hard to concentrate on my writing that generally required peaceful surroundings.
Gradually though, I got used to the noise that I would hear every now and then. Despite the odds, I tried to carry on my academic work. However, at one stage I realised that there was something more to it.
At a given time in the evening, about two dozen street mongrels would appear from nearby areas and assemble at a particular place near the railway track. They would then start the frightening late evening routine. The pack of dogs would raise their heads and start wailing in unison — giving the jitters to anybody during those late hours.
Sleepless night
Their cries gave me the shivers. I found that even puppies joined their elders in the mass wailing, perhaps not knowing who their elders were moaning for.
In any case, the nonstop wailing session seemed to have benumbed me. I think I could not have reacted otherwise. Disturbed as I was, I spent an almost sleepless night. At the back of my mind was the general belief, as communicated to me by my elders during my childhood that such wailing by dogs was a bad omen. It essentially pointed to an imminent death in the area. Or it could mean mourning for the dead.
That is why whenever we as children heard wailing by a single dog or group of dogs, we would try to find out which house in the neighbourhood had some patient battling for life.
I was even more disturbed when I sat down for work the next day in the evening and heard a repetition of the routine sometime between 8.30pm and 9pm. It did not bother anybody in my host’s family or in the neighbourhood. Obviously, they had gotten accustomed to the daily affair.
However, unable to stand the daily trauma, I asked my host about the strange happening. He smiled and without betraying any emotion told me that like other residents, he was also disturbed by the daily howling.
Then someone who claimed to know what had happened said that years ago a dog was crushed under the wheels of a train at the spot where the canines assemble even today. The dog was said to be the head of the pack.
Why the mongrels assemble at that very spot invariably between 8.30 and 9pm is both eerie and perplexing. Nevertheless, the phenomenon continues until this day.
Lalit Raizada is a writer based in India.
