25 March 2026

Faithful dog: His Master's Voice

When was studying in high school, our English language textbooks contained many stories from abroad. One was about Hachiko, a dog in Shibuya near Tokyo in Japan. This dog was pet of a local person. This person used to travel to Tokyo for work daily. Hachiko used to see him off at Shibuya Railway Station when he left for work and receive him when he returned to Shibuya every day. On one day, he didn't return. Hachiko waited long after this, and passed away. 

As a gesture of respect, local people constructed a statue of this faithful dog in front of Shibuya Station.

Faithfulness of dogs is well known. Decades ago, there was a Gramophone Records Company (in New Jersey, USA) that made the painting of Nipper, a dog, listening to it's master, globally popular and coined 'His Master's Voice'.

Gramophone label

I was surprised to find Nachiko featured in this evening's episode of  'Dive in Tokyo'.

Nachiko


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About Me

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Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
I am a retired K-12 Education Management Professional. I have worked at different levels in K-12 school systems, textbook publishing, elearning and Education NGOs. I have held memberships in The Association for Science Education (UK), American Association of Physics Teachers and The Malaysian Institute of Physics. I hold a 1st class B Sc Degree in Physics followed by B Ed [English and Physical Science] and M A [Childcare and Education] degrees. My published works include 59 articles in teacher development magazines in India and the US and a book entitled `Creative Classrooms and Child Friendly Schools' (listed in Amazon). This book is almost an anecdotal account of my professional experience in six countries (including Cambodia where I worked as Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Education, Youth And Sports). I served as mentor in the Certificate of Teaching Mastery Program offered by Teachers Without Borders.