Farooq Hassan
This story starts in Dallas, Texas. I don’t travel much now – having spent part of my professional life on the Wright Brothers’ invention. Hurtling along at 30,000 feet in an aluminum cylinder is not much fun. Despite the creature comforts and the comely smile. In Summer 2017, I visited my daughter in Dallas. Not being able to drive myself, I would hop into her SUV whenever she ventured out, which was 6 times a day.
In the county, McKinney, as we drove around, I noticed two rather grand “Animal Hotels”. Later on, I also noticed an “Animal Hospital and Spa”. On query my daughter, Maliha, responded by saying that “Baba Americans, especially Texans, take their pets very seriously. They are emotionally attached to their pets. Whenever the owners travel, they leave their pets at the Pet Hotel. The hotels are geared for any kind of pet – birds, reptiles to the four-legged kind. When a pet falls ill it is taken to the hospital. It’s a thriving business”. The second richest woman in the US is from the Mars family – they make confectionery and pet food.
Karachi is overrun by stray dogs. I live in what used to be a rather nice neighbourhood – Freretown, Clifton. From my second-floor balcony, I can see dozens of stray dogs. The mayor of Karachi, Wasim Akhtar, is, as usual, suffering from “Excusomania”. The ultimate solution is not a big deal. Akhtar should form a joint venture with a Korean company. The Korean company may be allowed to dock a refrigerated cargo ship at Karachi Port every fortnight. They may be given a licence to capture 10,000 dogs a month. Simple. Recently, the Health Minister of Sindh, the sister of AZ, tweeted “Stray dogs bite when agitated. Small children should not agitate them”. Wonderful operating policy.
Dogs come in various shapes, sizes, colour, pedigrees, etc. The most prized is the poodle. The most famous poodle is Tony Blair. When the Americans were conjuring up excuses to invade Iraq in 2003, they needed an excuse. They toyed with three options. Finally, they zeroed in on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). When selling this option got tough, they (US) sub-contracted the project to Tony Blair. Many sections of the international media dubbed Tony Blair as America’s “Poodle”. The other famous poodle story centres around Reza Shah Pahlavi (Shahinshah, Aryameher, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans). Reza Shah had a roving eye, despite being married to a beautiful woman, Farah Deeba, many beautiful young women in Tehran (and Iran) were at the receiving end (pardon the pun) of his favours. As a royal gift, the Shah would present a poodle from the Royal Kennel to the lucky lady. Soon, Tehran was full of young ladies and their poodles. The zeitgeist was “They had been Poodled”.
(The writer is the former Executive Director of the Management Association of Pakistan)
