Tikka the Dog

SNAP! CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH. SNAP! CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

My eyes moved downward as I watched a lone piece of biscuit fall from my lips and join the avalanche of crumbs that rolled down my belly and onto my crossed legs. I was absentmindedly chewing while staring into the distance at the quickly-moving scene that played outside of the second-story window of our Sleeper Bus. We were on our 15th hour of a 16-hour-long overnight bus ride from Jaipur to Amitsar, India and tensions were high.

I was chewing on a Parle-G biscuit and slowly tore my attention away from the window to the biscuits’ packaging and thought to myself, “Who would have ever thought that these “Original Gluco Biscuits” could taste so good?”

They probably didn’t taste as good as I remember, but I was willing to focus my mind on anything except for the situation. My fiancé, Adam & I, had been stuck in a cramped compartment that resembled a glass coffin for far too long and the claustrophobia was setting in. Not to mention, I just wanted to stretch my legs and run to a bathroom to relieve my swollen bladder from its distress. That’s it. But no. We were in India, and NOTHING there is ever that easy. As I tried to think of anything else other than the sweet release a toilet could offer, my thoughts quickly returned to the events that transpired earlier in the day.

Following the advice of our hostel host in Jaipur, we arrived by taxi 45 minutes early to the bus office location that was listed on the company’s website. We had pre-ordered our tickets and we thought our only concern once we arrived would be getting a good seat. Instead, we open-mouthed stared at what seemed to be a never-ending array of busses packed along a busy Indian street. People, trash, animals and their shit were everywhere. We held out hope that the address would somehow be correct as we walked the rest of the way to the building that Google Maps pinned as the location of the bus station and we immediately knew…. that it was incorrect.

Two sweat-drenched men sat at a grimy desk on the sidewalk staring at us with  confusion that reflected our own. After an impossibly complicated conversation that is not even worth recounting, we knew we had to continue our journey somewhere around the corner and 50 meters away from where we were standing. We still didn’t know if we were supposed to turn right or left because every time we asked the guys at the desk, they made this extremely ambiguous sweeping hand gesture to signal the direction where we were supposed to go. We had given up trying to decipher it because time was running out.

We speed-walked down the road, bumping into people along the way and asking for directions at any building that looked like it could be a bus service office. A few curious citizens tried to “help” and Adam and I were sent first left, then right, then 40 meters down the road, then 25 meters around the corner, left again and had one person tell us that we weren’t even in the right part of the city. Apparently, no one knew where this specific bus office or the actual bus was located. We were literally running around in circles finding every bus except the one we were supposed to board.

I glanced at my watch, and with 5 minutes until departure we still had 4 city-blocks lined with busses that we still hadn’t fully checked, so we split ways to double our efforts. I frantically analyzed every bus that I passed, losing hope with every wrong choice. At 10 minutes after the original departure time, I heard Adam’s voice in the wind and I saw him running in my direction. He had found our bus! I ran towards him, and as he saw my intent, he turned on his heels and ran back in the direction of the bus to make sure it didn’t pull away. We jumped inside the door of the vehicle, thinking we barely made it.  But this was India. The crew was late, the bus was still being loaded and it wasn’t even close to leaving. Lucky for us, this was one time that “India time” had worked in our advantage.

We breathed a sigh of relief but before I had time to exhale it all out, I realized why the bus tickets were so cheap. The sleeping compartments were tiny and not tall enough for someone to sit up straight. It was just a bus seat that had essentially been laid flat in a coffin-like box. The coolest part was the window down the entire length of the compartment from which we could watch the world slip by. I wasn’t  able to figure out the worst part because it could have been one of many things like: the bus didn’t have a bathroom, we were never told when they took bathroom breaks, I was either carsick or wishing for the bathroom the entire ride, my back hurt, I couldn’t leave the compartment without being blatantly stared at by every man aboard the bus, and we happened to be directly next to the busses horn with the most annoying jingle that went off every 5 seconds.

HONK! HONKIE! HONKIE! HONK! HONK!

That blasted horn had once again ripped me away from an escape into my memories and instantly brought my attention back to the present  as we bumped and jostled over the bumpy roads in the torturous compartment in that horrible mobile dungeon. I threw the rest of the cookie at the wall and gave Adam the, “get-me-the-hell-out-of-here” look.  My nerves were thinning like the elbow fabric of an old jacket and I wanted to scream. I began to hyperventilate and realized that I was on the verge of a panic attack, peeing my pants, or both!

Adam did all he could to console me but I needed one thing and one thing only. TO. GET. OFF. THAT. DAMN. BUS!!!

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the bus came to a screeching halt and started quickly offloading the majority of the passengers. I glanced at my watch again and it was around 4am, about 20 minutes ahead of our final drop-off time. We peaked out the window and tried to use the pre-dawn light to see that we were along a dusty highway near a nondescript underpass. Adam left the compartment to investigate and returned with a look of urgency.

“This is our stop!” Adam hastily said. “Grab your things and go before they take off. Thank God I checked because they were never planning on dropping us off at the ending location that was listed on the ticket. Next stop would have been 20 miles past the city!”

This was India. Why were we even surprised this was the outcome?

I was relieved to be free from the bus but was now confused about where we were. We stepped out into the chilliness of the morning and the polluted air never smelled so sweet.

Adam talked to a few guys standing around and came to the conclusion that we had no choice but to finish our journey to our hostel in a tuk-tuk. The bathroom would just have to wait, but at least I was no longer cramped up in a glass case of death. We bargained with a couple of tuk-tuk drivers, angered one, found a good deal with another, loaded our belongings and were on our way to our hostel.

I wasn’t panicking anymore but I wasn’t exactly happy either.  Our hostel and the bathroom were just a few minutes away and soon this whole ordeal would be over. Eventually, we arrived. Peeking under the roof of the tuk-tuk, I examined the outside of the accommodations. It was a big white building surrounded by a gated courtyard on a semi-busy Amritsar street. It had a welcoming feel.

I stepped out of the tuk-tuk as Adam was paying the driver, and turned around to grab my backpacks from the seat. Just then I felt someone touch my butt!!!

My anger rose within me and I thought I now had a target for my pent up wrath.

“You messed with the wrong woman, pervert!” I thought to myself as I turned to face my would-be harasser with my fist clenched and ready to connect with a face. But to my surprise, no one was there. Something fluffy was moving at the bottom of my vision and I allowed my head to follow the pom-pom. 

There stood a light brown and white medium-sized fluffy dog wagging his tale full of fur and looking up at me with an expectant canine grin. He was cute, but I had no time to entertain one of India’s many stray dogs. So I turned back around and BAM!

The dog hit me in my butt with his snout again! I turned back around and he had that same innocent grin but I could see the mischievousness in his eyes. This dog had moxie and even in my grumpy state, I admired it.

“Okay, pervert pup! Where did you come from?!”  I giggled, as I realized how hilarious this meeting was. Adam walked around the tuk-tuk and noticed my new furry friend.

“Where’d he come from?,” he asked.

“I have no clue but he hit me in the butt with his snout a couple of times and seems to want something.”

As the dog introduced himself to Adam, Adam noticed the collar on his neck. He was definitely owned by someone but allowed to roam the streets at night. As we stared at him, he pranced toward the gate and back and we realized that he was probably just trying to get inside the hostel courtyard.

Adam and I contemplated letting him in the gate but thought back to our previous hostel where their pregnant dog was not even allowed in the courtyard. We didn’t feel like getting into trouble so we thought it best to leave the furball outside until the hostel staff woke up. Turns out, that was much easier said than done.

We grabbed all of our items and tried to get in between the gate and the dog so we could enter it without him worming his way in. That was extremely unsuccessful because as soon as we opened the door, he moved like a NFL running back between our legs and successfully breached the gate, leaving the two of us stumbling in surprise. He triumphantly trotted toward the front door of the house and turned to us as if to say, “You coming?”

All was not lost. If worse came to worst and the dog stayed in the courtyard overnight, the hostel staff would wake up in 2 hours, see the dog, let it out and all would be okay. But he could not breach the front door of the house!

We shoo-shoo’d the dog away and he stepped back a few feet. We quickly opened the hostel door and entered just as fast but once again, before we could shut the door, the dog hurdled through the opening like he was channeling his inner Indiana Jones. Okay, so this was a worse-case scenario, not to mention I still had to go to the bathroom.

In disbelief, we watched the dog do another victory trot around the front room of the hostel. As my head turned to watch the solo dog show, I happened to glance at the sign that was next to my head.

It read, “DO NOT LET THE DOG INSIDE.”

“Well, we are screwed.” I said flatly as I pointed to the sign so Adam could read it. Just then my bladder reminded me it was there and full so I rushed off to the bathroom.

Upon my return and brief intermission from the early morning dog drama, I glanced over at Adam and he looked exhausted. He was digging through his backpack and pulled out the package of leftover Parle-G biscuits.

“Great Idea! I see where you are going with this. We can just throw the treat outside into the courtyard, the dog would follow and then we close the door,” I said with hope.

“That’s the idea. I tried getting him out of the house while you were gone but he wouldn’t listen. He’s a stubborn pup! He just thinks it’s a game.”

I stared at the dog as he curled himself into a cute ball in the middle of the floor. Meanwhile, my eyes were getting heavy with exhaustion and I coveted his pillow bed. Neither Adam or I had really slept much over the past 24 hours, so we wanted to figure this out fast.

“This biscuit better work!” I thought to myself. “That should be me laying down and on my way to sleep! Not this pup!”

Adam successfully retrieved the biscuit, quietly crinkled its packaging to get the dog’s attention and then seductively waved the cookie in the direction of the dog.

The dog’s ears perked up and he bounded toward Adam. I opened the door. Adam continued to wave the biscuit amping up the dog even more and with a simple toss, the biscuit became a glucose flying saucer as it flew outside and landed in the middle of the courtyard! The dog hesitated for a second, looked at us both and then chased the biscuit into the courtyard. We quickly shut the door and watched from the window as the dog sniffed the cookie and then left it untouched, looking up with a surprising look of intelligent confusion.

“Well, that puts into question my taste in sweets,” I thought to myself. But huzzah! Our mission was complete and we could rest for a few hours.

We did not have a room to stay in because we arrived early in the morning while the hostel staff was still sleeping. They knew we were coming and instructed us to sleep on the pillows in the main room until they awoke and gave us our bunks. Those pillows could have been rocks and I would have been equally happy to fall asleep on them.

Adam couldn’t stand being covered in the grime of the bus and decided to quickly take a shower before settling in for the night. I, on the other hand, gave up on my hygiene and decided to embrace my grimy body until morning.

I propped myself up on a couple of the pillows and used my large shawl as a blanket. I could feel my body relaxing, my eyes closing, and then, I heard it…

SNIFF, SNIFF, SNIFF, SNIFF.

My eyes shot open and there was the dog standing 2-feet away from me with that same grin he had on earlier. I looked at the front door and it was closed.

“How the hell did this dog get in here?!” I thought.

I mustered all my strength to stand up, and tried the Parle-G trick but this time the dog was much wiser and didn’t even flinch.

“Stupid, biscuit!” I exclaimed as I shoved it into my mouth.

I decided to figure out how the dog even got in the house. I quietly poked around the halls of the hostel and found a set of stairs which led to a fantastic rooftop hang-out area with spiral steps that led downstairs and back into the courtyard.

“So that’s how he did it!” I said to myself.

Luckily, the dog had followed me outside and I used the opportunity to run back inside, shut the metal screen door and quietly run back downstairs. It was time for my own victory trot. The canine threat was neutralized and I could return for my nap.

I curled back into my same set up on the pillows and began to finally relax.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH, BOOM!

“OH MY GOD,” I said aloud.

The dog was loudly banging and scratching on the rooftop door with his paws. What if the noise was to wake up the hostel or worse, what if he was to jump off the roof in order to break free?!

I had to act fast, so I ran up the stairs and reluctantly let the pup back in.

“You won again, pup.” I said to the dog as he dipped his head in agreement.

Just then Adam returned from his shower and was just as surprised as I was to find the dog back in the hostel.

“What happened?”, he asked.

I explained the whole story about the roof access point that he used to get back in the house, how he freaked out on the roof and I had no other choice but to let him back in before the entire hostel woke up.

We had to come up with another plan. This time, we decided to use our bodies as the bait and walked out into the courtyard encouraging the dog to follow us. He happily agreed and once he became a little less suspicious of our actions, we sprinted into the house and shut the door! Adam also ran upstairs and closed the additional heavier door on the roof so the dog couldn’t make any more forced-entry sounds.

We had finally done it! We began to settle down in the main room once again when all of a sudden, the front door flew open and the dog came barreling into the house.

“Wait, what?!” We both said simultaneously as we looked at each other.

“Good Morning, Tikka! Come here, Tikka!”

The dog was being followed by a voice and 4 people walked into the main room. Our presence surprised them and we quickly introduced ourselves. Two of the people in the group were clearly staff members and began to play with the dog as they shut the door behind them with the pup still inside. They were returning from an early morning behind-the-scenes tour of the Golden Temple.

“Oh, the dog is allowed in the house?!” Adam asked.

“Yeah, this is Tikka. We adopted him when he was a puppy and he lives in the hostel,” the staff member replied.

Adam and I looked at each other and then at the sign that read “DO NOT LET THE DOG INSIDE.”

I quietly chuckled. Why would the sign be correct?

After all, this is India.

Side Note: Tikka ended up being one of our favorite dogs throughout our travels! He was funny, smart and our regular companion throughout our stay, especially when we had any kind of food other than Parle-G biscuits. We hope to get a dog just like Tikka one day…but maybe a little less stubborn.
**And the hostel was fantastic too! Definitely in the top two or three from 2+ months backpacking through India, if you’re in Amritsar, definitely check it out for a stay or at least for a great tour! City on Pedals Hostel, Amritsar: Website, HostelWorld