Badamoo, Brownie and their daughter Chutki are my three pets who live down the lane.
Every morning the family walks me to the autorickshaw walla and every evening they cheerfully greet me, hopping about, sniffing my feet, and by now I have recognized their I-want-cookie expressions. I think it’s one of those big city phenomenon where your tiny apartment and severe absence from that too, doesn’t allow you to keep any pets. So you vicariously live through your street friends.
If you’re that kind of a dog lover, then this story might be of interest to you.
Bangalore-based artist, Aarohi Singh and her dog-activist neighbour, Rakesh Shukla, clearly do more than feed cookies to their street friends.
Aarohi is a self taught artist who constantly uses her art to express herself and the causes she believes in. And this time she was inspired by Rakesh’s determined work for the care of stray dogs.
“Two years ago, my daughter fell in love with Rakesh’s retriever pup. From then till now, I’ve watched Rakesh look after atleast 20 stray dogs. He and his band of volunteers treat sick dogs, feed hungry dogs, take them to veterinary doctors, as and when they need to be neutered, and all this comes out of their own pockets,†says Aarohi.
Rakesh runs a website, www.strays.in, (Voice of Stray Dogs) that works as a watch dog for agencies who supposedly treat and neuter strays. With footage and photographs that chronicle stray dogs and the trauma that they’re cruel homo sapien cohabitants put them through, I’d suggest you log on with caution. Only if you have the stomach for it because Rakesh tells it as it is.
Anyway, it’s not all that a grim story.
So Aarohi admits that with her two boisterous children and her life as an artist, she couldn’t get into field work of taking care of strays, but the artist in her decided to come up with the Poonchh Collection, to raise funds for the Voice of Stray Dogs.
About a 100 unique limited edition pieces, the Poonchh Collection has a silhouette of a stray dog printed on to handbags, totes, laptop sleeves, iPad and phone cases, clutches and cushion covers. Well finished pieces with leather trimmings, made in cotton canvass and poplin, some with fleece lining and padding, these are chic pieces that will definitely make an impression.
“I thought many well-intentioned NGOs sell their merchandise to raise funds, but that merchandise is usually khadi bags that get relegated to buying vegetables. I didn’t want that. I want the Poonchh Collection to be a stylish accessory. That thought also came from Rakesh, when one day he mentioned that if only adopting strays could be made hip and fashionable, give it an aspirational quality, then things would change,†recalls Aarohi.
And the point of this whole thing is that 50 % of the proceeds go to Voice of Stray Dogs, especially for a mobile hospital to help spay and neuter strays.
So here are the details: The Poonchh Collection is on from 10 to the 12th of February, at 100 Ft Boutique Bar Restaurant, Opp New Horizon School, HAL 2nd Stage, 100 Ft Road, Bangalore.
Price ranges from Rs350 to Rs3,000, except for the paintings which are priced at Rs5,000 each.
So you may want to add to your bag wardrobe, while helping the Badamoos, Brownies and Chutki’s of the streets.
