A dog’s tale: A man and his dog, the hardest goodbye of all

Charan hopes that in the next life, Aisy and him are reborn as father and son.

KARACHI: Rajesh Charan visits the cemetery quite often. This spring he lost someone very close to him - his pet Pomeranian, Aisy.

Now, he says, he only has one wish. To be reincarnated as a dog. This wish comes out of love for Aisy.

Since he belongs to the Hindu faith, reincarnation or rebirth is a concept central to the religion where it is believed that after the biological death begins a new life in a new body. “I have two sons and Aisy was just like my third boy,” he said as he tried to explain his relationship with the dog who passed away in April due to an illness.

Charan and Aisy shared a special bond that lasted over three decades and started across the border back in 1995.

“I used to feed the dog like I would feed my own children,” he said while reminiscing about life when his pet was alive. “We enjoyed spending the day together - mornings and evenings. Sometimes we would even share the bed.”

Man’s best friend

Charan and Aisy first met in 1995 when he went to stay with relatives in Ahmedabad, India. Although Charan is originally from Karachi, he had gone to meet extended family members who had been residing across the border since before 1947.

It was in Ahmedabad that Charan met Aisy and the two have been inseparable since. He returned to Karachi nearly seven years later in 2002 with Aisy in tow.

What he didn’t know was although there are laws to protect animals in Pakistan such as the Pakistan Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890, there were not implemented.

Last resting place

He wanted Aisy to be buried with respect and among humans. So he asked the elders of his community if he could get some space in one of their cemeteries in the city.

The elders agreed and Charan got to bury his dog with proper respect. He ended up spending Rs6,000 on building Aisy a concrete grave.

The dog’s grave can be spotted from far away. The gravestone has a picture of Aisy printed on it with a tilak on the head.

The cemetery where Aisy is buried is located in an area which was formerly known as the hub of inter-faith harmony as it has graveyards where people from different faiths are buried side by side.

“If Emperor Shah Jahan can build the Taj Mahal for his beloved wife Mumtaz, they why can’t I build a grave for my dog,” he said while talking to The Express Tribune. He added that he visited the dog at his grave every couple of months and although he missed him, he did not feel sorry about being separated.

“It is our belief that every living being is reborn and takes a different form each time,” he said. “I hope that in the next life, Aisy and I are reborn as father and son.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2014.