On Kukur Tihar — a Diwali festival for dogs celebrated by the Nepali community — six-year-old mongrel Teju had a lesson for humans.

Soon after Teju was garlanded and fed his favourite food comprising an egg, chapatis and peanuts on Sunday, his owner Dadhiram Chettri issued a command.

“Take plastic drop dustbin (sic),” Dadhiram said in a particular tone and Teju immediately rushed towards a heap of plastic littered by humans and started dropping the plastic wrappers one by one into a nearby dustbin.

“If others repeat my command in a similar tone, Teju will also obey their command,” Dadhiram, a resident of Sidrapong, said.

Teju is neither an exotic breed nor an ecologically aware Dogmatix — the fictional white terrier who is a companion to Obelix in the Asterix comics that cries every time a tree is felled.

“When my friend gifted me this one-month-old puppy, I thought of training it though I have no formal training,” Dadhiram said.

The mechanical technician at the Sidrapong hydel project, about 8km from Darjeeling, took one step at a time.

“I first started to train him to jump over a rope. Then I trained him to jump over a ring and then to pick up plastic waste. I invested a lot of my time in training him. I had to keep repeating the commands again and again,” Dadhiram said.

Teju is now trained to bring lunch for Dadhiram.

Kathmandu: Devotees worship a dog during Diwali celebration, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. PTI

At around noon, Dadhiram calls his wife Indra Sherpa Chhetri over phone. “She puts the call on speaker mode and I instruct Teju to get me lunch, which he always does,” he said.

The distance between Dadhiram’s home and his workplace is covered in around 10 minutes.

The dog has never failed Dadhiram’s command. “However, sometimes in the morning if I think that the dog is not feeling good, I do not ask him to bring lunch,” Dadhiram said.

On Kukur Tihar, the Nepali community worships crows, dogs, bulls and cows, with a day assigned to each animal.

“We celebrated Kukur Tihar in a grand manner today. Teju is our family member,” Dadhiram said.

Dadhiram’s family includes his elder sister Tara Moti and his son Sanand.