Dog’s Funeral: A Story on Untouchability

‘Dog’s Funeral’ is a novella dealing with a unique domestic situation emerging from the death of a pet dog in the family and the wish of the family members to arrange a funeral for it. The incidents, characters and episodes in the story cover larger social and humanitarian issues like the concepts of purity and untouchability and the prevailing inhuman traditions, and raises vital questions regarding caste, community, religion and rituals. The dead dog waiting for the funeral remains in focus and the readers grapple with the question, Don’t our pets that we love deserve dignity in death? Dr AK Mishra, Associate Professor (Retd.)Department of English, LR PG College Ghaziabad (U.P.)