At Puchu’s 10th birthday last week, she was the only Pug at the party. But the photographs will have you believe that every guest was a Pug. “You see, we had made masks out of Puchu’s picture and during the cake-cutting, all the invitees wore the mask and sang ‘Happy Birthday,’” says Baishali Roy. “And Puchu sat at the head of the table wearing a new outfit, floral necklace and a crown on her head.”
The rest of the year Puchu won’t let you even rest an outfit against her body but every November 29, she somehow knows it’s a special day and will let you dress her up to the hilt.
The day begins with the customary payesh, five kinds of treats and blessings from the elders in the family. Baishali even does arati for Puchu. In the evening is the party with cake and gifts and guests. “In the initial years, our friends would come with their pets – dogs, birds, rabbits – but Puchu dislikes other animals as much as she loves people. So now-a-days it’s only humans who come,” Baishali explains. For anyone missing dogs, there’s always the Pug mask.
Puchu is as good a girl as can be. She’s extremely clean and tidy, never steals food and has never gnawed the furniture. Her world is her mother – Baishali. “Puchu stays glued to my mom and it’s only when Ma steps out of the house that she comes looking for me,” laughs Baishali’s daughter Oindri.
Elder daughter Owishi is in college in Bhubaneswar and this is, again, fine with Puchu as long as Baishali is by her side. But every evening her husband Himadri must take Puchu for a car ride when he returns home from work or face the wrath of the Pug.
Puchu has traveled lots with the family to places like Digha, Mandarmani and is currently packing her bags to ring in the New Year in Puri. “All our trips have been by car, save one to Tarapith that was by train,” says Baishali. “Puchu was so still on my lap that the other passengers thought she was a toy!”
Puchu is a lady of exquisite tastes. Among fish, she likes Hilsa and among mangoes Alphonso. “Once we had got both Lyangda and Alphonso but I had served the Lyangdas first. Midway we offered Puchu the Alphonso and she ate them at break-neck speed. Thereafter when we offered her Lyangdas again she spat them out and turned her face away, demanding only her chosen varieties among fruits,” laughs Baishali.