Arre Kya Baat Hai! (old)

I had never thought that dogs can eat grass. That is before, we had Brando and started taking him out on morning and evening walks. Evening time is Gaudhooli, the dust raised by cows coming back to home from pastures lit by the rays of sinking sun. In our park, the evening time is kukur-pakhana time, all dog-owners out with their dogs, no matter if it is raining or snowing. Coming back to vegetarian dogs, I feel amazed to see Brando munching green grass. Nadia explained that it is some mechanism for him to clean his stomach since it would make him vomit. So, if he eats lot of grass, that means we must search for his vomits to clean-up next morning.

Eating grass to vomit reminds me of going to Dhirendra Brahmchari's ashram near Gol daak-khana in early seventies. The yoga classes started around 5 in the morning. I would go by bicycle from Rajendra Nagar. There we had to do the netis - all the different techniques for cleaning the body. The first neti to be learned was that of vomiting for cleaning the stomachs. Everyone drank a few glasses of tepid water and then cheerfully vomited in the round space delimited by a low wall. Just watching others vomiting brought a wave of nausea initially. Do proper vomiting beta, Bhramchari ji's assistants extorted. So fingers in the throat, going ga-ga-ga, till tears came out, trying to vomit. However, with practice, things got much better. Just standing near the vomiting place, a quick contraction of tummy muscles, brought out every thing inside in a generous bout of vomit.

There were other netis to learn like taking strings of clothe, putting them in one side of nose, taking out of the other, swallowing the clothe-strings, meters and meters of it, and then bring them out again (probably by mouth I think!). I never came around to those other netis, never progressing beyond the vomiting neti. Just writing about it, has brought a bit of nostalgia for healthy vomiting. Wonder if I can try it again one of these days, may be when I am alone at home with only Brando (who I am sure would approve!).