Tuesday 22 January 2013

How to have a successful relationship with your puppy

I am not a dog lover, but I know that a lot goes into having a successful relationship with your puppy. You bring him home, you treat him like part of your family, teach him to eat out of a bowl, toilet train him and set him into a routine. He learns that you don't like him chewing your shoes or the sofa and you learn that he likes to sleep at your feet. You deal with the occasionally broken vases and upturned plants, and he deals with the rolled up newspaper or slipper used to scare him. But in the end,  you learn to live with each others moods and temperaments and feel proud when in public he runs up and licks your face! You make it work.

Ditto family! As my friend Kedar Anil Gadgil says, "don't you adjust and make it work if you don't like something your brother does? Do you just run away and stop talking to each other? It's like that with relationships! When we have an issue with a family member, we sort it out. We don't vanish from their lives. We accept that we may share a surname but we are different and we learn to live with each other!

Then why do we, when we meet a new person, expect him/her to already be perfect for us? Why do we not take the time to learn about each other and adjust? I have observed that most people will meet look at someone across the room, at a party (often just the back of the head), and say, "not my type!" Really? That person you've never spoken to is not your type? Or they exchange a few words and say the same thing. If that were true, our families would not be our type! (My brothers and I fight lots. But yo can't beat the solidarity.)

In fact, my husband, according to my friends was not my type. And at first impression, he wasn't! We are chalk and cheese (I'm the cheese! The most exclusive variety! I insist!) and yet we're happy together. I'm glad we took the time to learn about each other, and I'm glad we make the adjustments with each other, like we would with our siblings or puppy, and I'm glad we didn't put each other in boxes at the outset!

So maybe, that guy who is too quiet is your type after all, or the girl in that tiny dress is the perfect wife material! Think of them like your puppy and discover each other before you give up! And that's how you make the relationship with the puppy work :)

 Photo courtesy - Ashiesh Roy
Models -Sandhya Suri and Nike Suri!

3 comments:

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  2. Apart from the fact that Nike Suri and I find ourselves elevated to model status, I agree with you that relationship lessons need to be learned from a pet. Love, adjustments, learning, training and eventually the biggest lesson of it all that I have learned is unconditional love. It doesn't matter if I have yelled at him or grounded him or left him alone for hours at home...he loves me, without any restrain, no matter what. :)

    (ps) removed the last comment...too many typos and I felt ashamed ;)

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