We get to know Abodh a little better.

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When was the first time you protested against a cruel act, how old were you then?

Don’t remember a cruelty incident specifically but I used to take dogs, cats and birds to the hospital for treatment since I was in school. I started volunteering with WSD in 1995 and after my MBA in 1996, I trained under a vet for 2 months and initiated the on-site first aid programme which treats stray dogs with maggot infestations, wounds, skin problems, minor injuries, eye and ear infections.

Being an animal rights activist from Mumbai, which is the cruelest incident you have witnessed?

There have been two that immediately come to my mind.
Some cruel person had tied a wire around the penis of the stray dog in Wadala. The whole area had become gangrenous; the dog could not pass urine and was in great pain. He was operated upon at WSD and luckily for him, he also got adopted into a good home. You can imagine how mild and trusting the stray dog must have been to allow a person to do that.

The second was an incident where someone threw acid on a dog at Zaveri Bazaar. This fat brown dog never got into anyone’s way. We treated him on-site for over two months and if you see him today you will still be able to see the acid burn scar on his body.

And the kindest?

Oh, there are so many. Just look around when you walk on the streets of Mumbai and you will see the chaiwala, boot-polishwala, the watchman, the policeman, the street dweller and the slum dweller giving strays all the love, affection and whatever little food they have. Stray dogs are mostly pets of the poor. You will see them snuggle against each other when they sleep at night on the footpath.

An interesting story is that of Arvind, the lame bootpolishwala (shoeshine man) who has kept many stray dogs as pets in his life. He lives on the footpath outside Eros theatre and he used to name his dogs after movies that were released at Eros. So he had a Pretty (Pretty Woman), James (James Bond), Tipu (Tipu Sultan), Hritik and Amisha (Kaho Na Pyar Hai). Arvind loves all his dogs dearly (only James and Tipu are left) and calls WSD whenever any of them is ill or wounded.

When there are so many strays to be adopted, how do you feel when you see people buying pedigree pooches?

I think that we need to try and convince people who want to keep pets to Adopt a dog and that too a pariah (the local Indian breed), rather than going and buying a pedigree or fancy breed. Our local dogs are as good looking, as loyal, as friendly and in fact less susceptible to diseases. I think that there are more people than before who have started adopting abandoned dogs or strays from WSD. WSD has also started the WSD Indian Pariah Dog Club, with an objective or promoting the adoption of the stray dog. This club already has more than 110 members

How do you see the problem of the stray dog population in Mumbai getting solved? How can I help?

Just walk around South Mumbai or areas that have achieved more than 80% percent sterilization and you will know. This can be replicated in the suburbs, if the BMC allots more spaces to start sterilization centers. This would result in bringing down the stray dog population and the problems (fighting, biting, barking associated with strays.) (Look up the Stray dog issue section on www.wsdindia.org)

How can you help: If you are a dog lover, instead of just feeding stray dogs in your locality, take up the responsibility of sterilizing and immunizing them against rabies every year. NGO’s like WSD do not charge for sterilization or immunization. If you are not a dog lover but a concerned citizen, you should write to the BMC to get all the dogs in your area sterilized or request an NGO nearest to you to pick up the dogs for sterilization.

During the rains, I often spot dogs with huge wounds running across the road. How can I help them?

The wounds that you see are maggot wounds and can be cured. We treat hundreds of dogs every month with such wounds. You can either do it yourself (after being trained) by attending WSD’s S.O.S. workshop’s (held twice a year) and volunteering with WSD’s on-site first aid programme.

Else you can call an animal welfare NGO like WSD. WSD reaches out to such dogs from Cuffe Parade to Juhu and Sion or co-ordinates with other NGO’s for areas beyond. You can call on our help line: 23733433/23891070

If I witness an act of cruelty what should I do? Should I call somebody up?

It depends on the nature of cruelty inflicted. Some cases can be solved with your own intervention. Some might need the intervention of an animal welfare organization or the local SPCA, which has police powers.

I am free on week ends, can I volunteer to help with WSD Activities?

Yes, of course you can volunteer. WSD has around 150 volunteers who are students, working people or homemakers and WSD depends on these volunteers to help out in different WSD activities. If you wish to volunteer, you need to meet us and fill a volunteer form which details the activities that you can volunteer for (you can choose the one you would be comfortable doing), including walking the dogs at the kennels, giving a presentation in a slum, administering first aid or fund-raising. You can call us on 23733433 or e-mail: wsd@wsdindia.org

I wish to donate some money to WSD, can I?

Though WSD does not charge any money for any of its services, WSD needs to raise more than Rs one and half lakh every month for the costs that it incurs on the sterilization, immunization, on-site first aid and other activities for stray dogs. WSD is always grateful for donations received. Donations are exempt from tax under Section 80-G of the Income Tax Act (1961).
People can also make in-kind donations like rice, dal, Dalia, milk powder, medicines, newspapers and other items that are required at the WSD kennels. For more details or if you want to come and visit our sterilization center at Mahalakshmi, Saat Raasta, do call 23733433 or e-mail wsd@wsdindia.org.

What is your message to the readers of this blog?

Like all problems, the stray dog issue too needs to be dealt with rational solutions and measurables in mind. Thus the sterilization programme needs to get adequate infrastructural and monetary support from the government, which is lacking till date. The mass sterilization programme will work better with government inputs (BMC does not give a single paisa to the NGO’s for sterilization) than the practice of killing stray dogs (BMC had a big budget) over a hundred years which was totally ineffective as the objectives of bringing down human rabies deaths or the stray dog population were never achieved. Do look up the FAQs, as a lot of your questions on the Stray Dog issue will get answered.

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See pets for adoption here.

As a child I believed nothing could possibly go wrong in Mumbai. If something did, then the gargoyles at Victoria Terminus (now CST) would come alive, grotesque creatures of massive strength – to counter the evil befallen over the city. The angels would come to life, bright and strong and engulf the city in their protective embrace.

The bombs went off like clockwork. Eleven minutes. Seven bombs. Leaving behind a life full of mourning for some, extreme pain and sadness for the others. The gargoyles still were made of stone, the angels still stayed put, the lions still in their half snarl frozen for eternity.

But Mumbai will still bounce back, she has already. Indeed she is on her feet, strong again, not scared, not looking back.The families which have been destroyed, the limbs that have been lost, the fear in the minds of the children, and the images which will haunt us forever – about that we can do nothing.

Soon that will pass too, and after the forensic investigations, the damaged compartments will stay put in a car shed, perhaps in full view of the public as we pass by. So we will pass them by – lost in thought, lost in conversation, listening to our favorite radio stations, watching the city rush by from our favorite window seats, or hanging out of the train for cheap thrills – until terror strikes yet again.

So wake up people, before its too late again – switch off your televisions. Don’t let the 24×7 news channels make you believe anything. They are merely trying to make a quick buck by increasing their TRPs at the expense of your emotions. If you must believe something, believe it because you have seen it, because you know it. Do not pay heed to the politicans, they are mere opportunists trying to further their political careers on the shoulders of our dead. Do not blame a community, a religion for the terrorist activities for terrorism has no nationality and no religion.

Mourn the dead, but also plan for the future. This attack proves that we have lapsed, something somewhere has gone dreadfully wrong. And we need to see our shortcomings to come up with remedies. We must rely on nobody but ourselves. We must be the angels and the soldiers who will safeguard this city and her people. We must save our city from coming under attack again.

But how do you think we can prevent this from happening again? Any suggestions?

Seven blasts in Mumbai’s local trains. Matunga, Bandra, Khar, Jogeshwari, Borivli, Bhayandar and between Khar-Bandra over the Khar subway. The blasts happened at peakhour when most of Mumbai’s working population returns home using the local trains. Reports vary – 35 to 50 people are dead, and countless injured. But to those of us who have seen the local trains, we know that the figures are much much higher.

There are injured and dead people lying on the tracks. No police in the picture, no fire brigades. Its the local people, the shopkeepers and the people wo live close to the house who are coming into help. Carrying bodies both alive and dead in bedhseets. Some tiny bundles, perhaps with limbs within, or maybe children.

***

Whom were you trying to target? The working class men who struggle for an inch of space in local trains? The working women who knit and cut vegetables in trains on their way home? Young, dreamy students discussing exams and love? The babies accompanying their mothers, smiling back at the women around them?

Darkness is fast falling. Its raining like it will not stop. Will the rains wash away the blood? Will tomorrow be a new day. Here’s to lost lifes and broken dreams.

Like Pragni says, Mumbai is too big to know like the back of your hand.

My advice to you is DO not watch drama-hungry news channels. They are pure evil. They telecast and retelecast the same scenes for days. You never know, maybe you’re watching a video clip from last year too. Open your windows, look towards the sky and judge the situation yourself. Be prepared to face a flood, but be prepared to have a normal monsoon too. The latter might be difficult after all the media histrionics.

A waterlogged bylane:

A well prepared housing society:

Gardening Department of BMC at work:

High Tide at the beach:

Have a happy and fun monsoon! :-)

Did anybody tell you dreams die here?

I spotted this young man on a footpath this morning. I wonder what made him so sad. I wanted to reach out to him, but all I did was clicked a picture from a red BEST bus.

***

If it’s about what you dream of, does it matter where you dream? How many more will you ensconce, how many more dreams will you nurture, before you shatter them into fragments. Tiny splinters that cut into naked feet and leave bloody footprints.

The city of dreams they call you, is this all you have to offer, mother? Just this much and yet so much. A sheet too small to stretch his legs on, belongings so meagre he can carry them along, and yet a sound sleep, where he can escape into whichever reality he wishes to. Reality is where you wish to be. What are you in your reality, old man? Are you a king with bright eyed daughters, are you a suited businessman in a car with tinted glass, or are you back home, to the place where you once belonged.

Sleep well now old man, for when you wake up, reality may be harsh.

***

And what dreams lie beneath those bright eyes? And how much time until the smile fades, and the eyes darken? How much time until we realise the most joyous moment for a city is not the innaugration of a flyover, or the rush of a faster train? How much time until we realise that the person selling balloons to children at traffic signals is a child too?

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These pictures have been clicked at different times between January and June. Maybe I shouldn’t have clicked these pictures at all, or should not have put them up without asking the people in the pictures about it. Maybe.

Here is the detailed price chart. Quite fair, I say. The longer your message, the more difficult it is to fit the same on a grain of rice, the higher the price. I find the messages to be very funny. Mumbaiites are very romantic people.

A close up.

Everything comes for a price. Want your vial on a keychain. Pay up Rs 10 more.

Ofcourse, everything is negotiable :-)

Cotton on trees.
Bits of cotton fly around and are caught by sparrows to build comfortable nests

Plastic bath-tubs for kids are sold on footpaths.

The dog in your building has a haircut:

Crows collect twigs to build their nests.
Difficult to capture this on a camera because as soon as they see a camera, they think they’re going to be shot for real!

You spot pretty flowers on the sidewalks:

Nimbu paani stalls do brisk business:

*Detailed Pricing is as follows

Kids cycle all day long

And finally, the Return of the King.

***

He says the OBCs must be uplifted, and his party will do everything they can to implement the quota.

And he claims the doctors weren’t laathi charged.

And they ensure no untoward incident happens

And they listen

And they hold their banners high

And yet Sachin lives at CST Station earning Rs 5 each day.

Does he go to school? He doesn’t have a caste certificate. And we don’t have reservations in primary education!