Instant Karma

John Lennon

Every day in Bali, beautiful, simple offerings are placed at millions of key points around the island to appease evil spirits, amongst other functions. These offerings of rice, flowers and incense on a woven banana leaf base are often gobbled down by scowling street dogs. Yet the Balinese Hindus remain unperturbed. After all, dogs – or anjing – are but incarnations of evil spirits, so all is as it should be. Only in the last decade has the western concept of keeping dogs as pets become popular. But the rabid, skulking, snarling, unloved street hounds with more scabs than fur, still outnumber the dogs with collars.

At the end of a big night out, I clambered onto my pushbike and veered back to my losmen in Poppies Lane 1. I felt at peace with the world as I paused to hand out 500 rupiah notes to beggar mothers … until a shrill blast from the shadows almost scared me from my saddle. A barking dog! Mangy anjing (dog), I cursed, as I steered my bike toward the darkness. I chuckled, Have a taste of your own foul obat (medicine)! The anjing yiped and scurried into the blackness of a covered walkway. I gave chase, as if I had become the living, riding embodiment of instant karma …

Of course I didn’t see the solid wooden cross-beam lined with rusty nails. But I sure felt the several holes it drove into my forehead. My spectacles smashed. I crashed from my bike. Babbling and concussed, I somehow made it back to my room, where I passed out in front of my door, unable to operate the key. I awoke, baking in the sun, terrified I’d gone blind, though dried blood had merely fused my eyelids together.

Over the next week, many people enquired of the scabs across my head: ‘Coral reef cuts?’
Embarrassed, I replied, ‘Ah… yeah.’

First published in Australia’s Surfing Life, Volume 71, August 1994