Two things:
I was in Bowbazar and then walking on Ganesh Chandra Avenue today. I saw so many dogs, and even two litters. A piece of chot had been placed under where they were lying. Another dog lounged right beside where people were eating and they didn’t mind. The dogs were, for the most part, healthy. How and why why why is it that people on the streets find it easier to care for dogs than people in prosperous localities? Why do I constantly have to be on the alert to feed dogs etc quietly, because an animal person is not looked upon kindly in the neighbourhood? Sraboni, the lady from whom I brought my dog, is a nervous wreck, almost, these days. A Marwari family in her building is ganging up people against her for feeding dogs. Their rallying point is a male dog who has bitten other dogs and even chases people sometimes. He has a temper. They mockingly call Sraboni Maneka Gandhi and say that the dog is here and acts this way towards humans because S feeds him.
I know how it is. I returned home from home at 3am from office on three days. I feed three dogs usually after I return from office. One of the residents in my complex very conveniently put the two facts together and was asking around why I feed dogs at 3am in the night, endangering the security of the complex as it necessitates the opening of the main gate. I usually feed them between 10.40 and 11pm, when I return home on most days.
I am tired. A puppy I found has gone missing. It was staying nights with me and I was leaving it on the street, near an istiriwala in the mornings, because nobody was willing to take it in. I miss it shutor moton tail and fat belly and tumbly walk and bhota muzzle. It kept me awake at nights and required me to sleep by 12 and awake at 7. Please please be alive.
There was a drive of some sort happening on GC Avenue: a man with walky talkie was instructing some people in breaking the unoons and taking away the gas unoons of people selling food on the street. GC Avenue is office para and there are shacks lining the footpaths on both sides of the road. They serve cheap, fairly good quality food and are the lifeline for office goers in the area. I don’t know why their unoon s were being taken away, perhaps because they were not supposed to be cooking there, but things is, how can you do that? They probably pay money to whoever to be allowed to ply their trade there, and you are crippling them smartly, saying you are enforcing the law? I saw them as I walked, a little faster than I would have because I was also going to get lunch some way ahead from one such seller and didn’t want them to have broken this guy’s stuff as well. They just looked on with staring eyes, without reacting, as their stuff was taken away and went back to gathering them together. A little ahead, people hurriedly put them away, to stop them being taken away, I guess. I am sure this is not a particularly smart thing to write and there are nexuses within nexuses, but let me indulge myself, for once. This is not the way to do it, that much I know.
And something else, that I can’t remember now. My heart is clenched with apprehension.
Edited to add:
The other thing I wanted to say: uh, am I the only one who does not care to get pregnant and spawn children at the stage I am in my life, meaning, with job, potential marriage person and on wrong side of 25? It’s slightly sickening. And its not that I don’t want kids, I am just not seeing a reason to have them anytime soon. I don’t care for the sight of young, pleasant looking women carrying kids.
Bad English is my birthright
4 comments:
About the kids you are not the only one. About the dogs you are not the only one. In our neighborhood I faced hell, my family faced hell because we fed and sheltered cats. When I was younger there was this place by the pond behind my building, people routinely discarded left-overs and some trash there. Nothing hugely unsightly, and it sustained lots of street animals. The first cat I befriended was from one of those early lots that lived off that 'dumpster'. That was long before we started feeding them in our building and took some of them in. It was also the place from which I rescued my first kitten, a lovely golden brown thing, and thankfully found her a home with one of mum's acquaintances. In the many years since that place has been cleared away, and my last few winters in India weren't as familiar without the sights of feline families basking in the sun in our backyard, responding as me or my mom called out to them from our second floor.
That's Maneka Gandhi's email address. Write to her. Tell her everybody in your neighbourhood has problems with keeping non pedigree dogs at home and feeding street animals. She is very prompt with her replies. I can give a copy of the Delhi High Court judgement she sent me: it's about how noone can prevent you from feeding /taking care of stray animals.
Also, if dog is biting, the best thiong to do is get a compounder (will give you phone number) to come and vaccinate them against Rabies. ask Indrani to give you certificates for each dog. Also, you can ask Indrani to get a 10 ml vaccine pack at 100 (so much cheaper than buying single doses).
sorry. here's the email address:
@Priyanka, yes
@Madhura, the dogs are all vaccinated, i think. but do give me the phone number and a copy of the judgement. it might be useful in shutting them up. what certificate does indrani give?
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