Despite having three important presentations around the corner, I am overcome by a strange ennui, and just can't seem to get cracking on them. Inspiration, where art thou? I have been unnaturally silent this year. No scathing columns about TAM or ABC in the business press, no interviews to the websites. Indeed, for almost four months this is the only place I have put down any thoughts, and most of them borrowed. I was asked to do a piece on radio, which I ignored, but I did send a short number on Vikram Sakhuja for DNA last week, he is coming up in the 50 most influential people in Mumbai list. Noor says I must talk, I say ok ok, next week maybe.
Perhaps it's due to the covert guilt I feel about a completely separate issue - that I have not yet spoken up about the stray dogs issue this year. No ads, no columns, no interviews, no letters to the editor. The news channels footage of the dogs being dragged off in trucks in Bangalore, carcasses piled up and tossed around, the sms campaigns, the WSD calendar, the high court judgement, and the madman Phatak's pronouncement - they all leave me with a sense of 'let it be'. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Bad men will be bad, dogs will be dogs, good people will be good.
My darlings in Torda vaccinated 157 dogs against rabies free of cost this Sunday in a camp conducted for the Merces panchayat. Next Sunday, we will do the same number at Mapusa, sponsored by the local MLA. While protesters shout from the rooftops, we go about quietly doing real work.
Red FM's Malishka did a good show this morning featuring the issue, promoting the adoption of stray pups by societies etc. Sort of similar to the one Radio City did for me last August, which actually went on for a week. While Maneka has sent me this little film, which Pedigree has kindly produced for PFA, to get telecast on all the networks. Am posting it here, in case the film inspires you to do something too.
8 comments:
Lynn, would love to hear your views on this.
http://robcampbell.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/charity-begins-with-home/
Can some Indian client be willing to take up his cause in India. Not for the sake of PR but as a part of their CSR on which they build their brand.
They say action speak louder than words and sometimes silence sure is gold....But is that really it!!
I guess to voice one's opinion and to get heard is important but mnore important is the action bit.
As long as that keeps happening there isn't much to worry about.
this is something my father always professed and practised too...twice we got home pups from the street. that they ran away on both the occasions, is perhaps a story for a post.
how did the presentation go? am also in the middle of writing one :)
Thanks for sending me this link, Roop, a great learning experience, every one of the 103 comments had some great ideas for the homeless in America. Yes, we can adapt this in some way for the street dwellers of India, beginning with the professional construction companies. I am also going to put this on I-Congo's agenda. Thanks again
I think two half hour rides down Ridge Road yesterday were good enough to get the gray cells working again, Meraj. The teams have been putting the ppts' together, they are all scheduled for next week. I am only the stimulus giver, and icing-on-the-cake writer, alas! Hope yours went well. As to the pups you lost, hey they probably felt better on the street. You should read my book, A Dog's Life:-). Till then, try this post when you have the time
http://lynnisms.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=23826
Don't say the thoughts you posted out here in the last four months were borrowed. It is self-flagellatio. Most of them were authentic and original. And on stray dogs most of our local bodies chose the easy way out, catch them, kill them and take them away in trucks. As a society we have no awareness of animal rights and display very little of the compassion that our religions proclaim. Stray dogs do help keep a city clean by eating a lot of waste in the form of left over food and bones. Crows too do the same. each animal has its clearly spelt out in the patterns evolved by nature and if man plays with it, he wil be doing so at his risk. Happy to understand you and your orgn is doing a great job in Goa. Keep it up.
Like the thought...actions speak louder than words. I myself am an animal lover, especially dogs, cats and dolphins (would love to have a collection of dolphin souvegnirs someday). The Bangalore incident did disturb me especially when I saw some of the dogs wagging upto the very people who had set out to kill them...oh it was heart breaking...feel choked and tears fill my eyes everytime I recall that scene. Fact of the matter is we have become so insenstive to everything around us and take refuge in leading a life full of hypocrisy...I have met people who claim to adore dogs but ask them to adopt a stray one and you know that their love for dogs strictly limits itself to the pedigree ones, they'll eat non-veg and find it hard to give up...One such is a hard core animal activist that you speak of...I adopted my dog from this person's pet care shelter and have first hand experience of what goes on there...and if he/she is ignorant of such things then its a pity because it defeats the very purpose that they had set out to achieve. From that day, I decided to do my own thing in my own way...I used to adopt stray animals (a rescued dog, an abandoned kitten)... can't anymore...you see my dog craves for love so much that she is terribly jealous when face with divided attention :o). I hope to someday retire and do my own bit, maybe act as a volunteer in your efforts :o)
thanks for your comment anonymous. don't wait till you retire. do something, however small, TODAY. otherwise you sound like you're making excuses.
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