"It is a kumkum," the Indian lady spelled the name of the purplish 1.5-cm diameter, circular dot on her forehead when we met in 2007. "It shows that I am married."

This was below a white "Nike" logo on her forehead. Her eyebrows were thick and tattooed or painted.

"How about the black dot (0.5 cm diameter) between your eye brows?" I tried to learn more about her culture.

"Just for decoration."

This lady never failed to attract attention anywhere. Tall. All rounded figure packaged into a broad shouldered and chested frame. Matronly like the hospital ward matron described in English novels. I had met 2 of such commanding figures during my undergraduate studies in Glasgow. One was a cook of Kelvin Hall of Residence. The other was the bursar of Dalrymple Hall.

Women of formidable stage appearance. You would not want to be her enemy. A heavily orange-powdered rectangular face looked straight at me.  Big wide eyes that would x-rayed through you. I drew an illustration for readers of this imposing personality.    

My 7 sq m examination room had sufficient space just for her, the examination table, cabinets and me. My nurse could just squeeze somewhere as she weighed the pups and took their temperatures. 

She had sold all her 6 Pom puppies to selected friends.

"All must come to you for vaccination as a condition of sale," she said.

"Don't you give the Buyers some choices?" I doubted any buyer would bother as vaccination is a commodity. 

"No," she said. I vaccinated the parents. One puppy was 10% bigger than either parent. Thick coat. She complained about a vet charging $400 for vaccination of 6 puppies, so she took her business to me.

"I can't imagine such a high vaccination fee for the one basic vaccination," I said.  

"Grooming included," she said. I didn't want to proceed further.

"What do you feed this puppy?" I asked. "Dry puppy food?"

"No, my home-cooked food. I don't use commercial dog food."

"Are the puppies toilet-trained?"

She said, "The dam teaches the puppy to go to the newspapers. So, at the new home, the puppy just eliminate on the newspaper."

This episode will explain why some first-time puppy owners say that their puppy is so intelligent and knows how to eliminate on the newspapers on day 1.

UPDATE IN AUG 2009
I was surprised to see her again. A puppy vaccination. The 'Nike' logo was gone from her orange-powdered face. Her stage presence was still intimidating to me.  "May I ask whether you are an actress?" I imagined her doing well in the song and dance movies of Bollywood as she had that vitality and majestic figure. Maybe not as a heroine in stereotypical movies.

"I am a rubbish truck driver," she stated. She was much more than that. She was a boss. She had won the bid to remove garbage from a suburb in Singapore against gigantic firms with lots of money backing them for the past 10 years. What an achievement! In the real world, the big boys usually play dirty by under-pricing to get rid of the small firms. Singapore's bureaucrats prefer big companies and lowest pricings usually. 

This charismatic lady not only inherited her father's business but had worked hard and efficiently to keep the corporate wolves from the door for the past 10 years - so that she could raise a family and vaccinate her Pomeranians. Without the advantage of a university degree. Graduates may throw in the towel and harbour negative thoughts. This garbage boss graduated from the school of hard knocks, fighting off the predatory Goliaths of garbage-removal business in bidding wars.  I hope she would still win as the bureaucrats are heart-less in awarding the lowest tender.

"How much do you charge for house-call?" she asked me. "It will not be worth it," I replied.
"Well," she put her pups and her children into a SUV taxi waiting outside my surgery. "House-call fees may be cheaper than renting this taxi!"