Me and this world - a tête-à-tête

During one of the adoption camps, I met another lady who is as passionate as I am and as practical as I am not. My Animal welfare journey would never be complete unless I speak about this lady. Radhika Deshpande and I became friends in no time. She and I would have long talks about ABC Drives and other rescues. I felt comfortable to tell her things that I otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to anyone, to seek her advise about animal welfare or otherwise. We made a good team. She also supported me when I needed fosters for the pups that I would be looking after. We did several rescues together and then one fine day we left the group for good. For once, we also considered starting our own NGO. Since we had understood the hard work it takes to built a team and a financial support that would be needed to run day to day activities, we called it off. It was or rather even today is a wise decision. The Dilemma that I faced was about interfering with the nature or choosing to reduce populat...

  People would come to her to adopt dogs. Most of them would be looking for free puppies of exotic breeds. Many didn’t want to take home any dog that would have been previously owned. Hardly anyone wanted to have the local indie dogs. The group also used to organize Adoption camps. People used to huddle up only to see puppies in the pens. The caregivers of these puppies would mostly be heartbroken since very few pups would be adopted. The kitties would find homes quickly but getting the dogs adopted used to be real hard work. Once another lady and I visited an elderly couple who wanted to adopt a pup. We took some 4 healthy pups in carrier in an auto rikshaw. When I realised that the energy levels of the couple together wont match to that of the pup, I told the lady and she instantaneously agreed. We brought the pups back. Another time, a family had adopted a pup during adoption camp. When we called to inquire about how the pup had settled with the family, we were told the pup...

  Taking Riki for walks was an easy task. He never needed a leash. On the walks he would greet people, knock doors to say hello to people, trespassed royally in gardens for grass. There were times when he would take himself on walks and when people would tell him to go back home, he would return. In 2006, Riki went for a walk by himself and didn't return. My father had practically taken his time off from work to look for him. We must have visited many slums and many colonies and houses looking for him. After good 16 days, one evening when I was at work a young man from neighbourhood returned the dog and demanded Rs 700 which my mom had paid off and taken Riki home. I met the fellow over the weekend and tried to understand how and where he had found the dog. His answers were inconsistent. A few days later, I met a woman when Riki and I were on walk, she said her brother ran a kennel and the fellow who had brought Riki home worked for him. She also asked me if I had Riki’s papers...

It is 3 AM of 20 th May 2013, and it’s just been few minutes, that I returned from a trek to Saandhan Valley. I don’t know why today throughout the day, I have had a very strange feeling & I am motivated to write this. This post isn’t about today’s trek; this is an account of a trek completed seven and a half years ago! Those were the days when I was a total amateur mountaineer rather just a hiker and a very confused person. I hardly thought of this business as a lifelong passion. It was perhaps to socialize that I joined for this trek. Said to be a tough trek, this was taken also a personal challenge. Harishchandragad it was. There are 3 well known routes to the destination; we took the one from Khireshwar.  It was mid December 2005 & the sky that night fascinated me way beyond my expectations. Almost every star was trying to prove its existence that night. I had never seen a sky with so many stars, least that I had thought they existed. As the darkness of ni...