Angel of the neglected- Abhishek Bhowmick

As you all know that from last few weeks Orkutheroes, the parent blog of Orkut’s Hall of Fame community was busy in reporting the latest news, updates and public views and opinions on the tragic incident of Mumbai Terror Attacks which once again shattered the whole humanity, where man of 21st century witnessed the dark and most dangerous side of man himself. Blood, cry and pain was all around and we the God’s most perfectly created living beings are ashamed of whatever happened to our fellow human beings by another human being.

In all this I and many people like me started feeling insecure being with people around us, as that strong feeling of security had started being disappeared, but luckily I was wrong because still there are people like Abhishek Bhowmick who can make us comfortable and safe. No, Abhishek is not into securities or military but he is the man who has immense love for those creatures who are world’s most neglected ones yet they live more closer to us than any animals. I am talking about stray dogs and Abhishek is more than an angel to them. I believe that people like Abhishek is the reason this world is still a place to live.

I am glad and proud to have Abhishek on this community which is Orkut’s most respected and honorable community of outstanding personalities and real life heroes. Abhishek is from Mumbai and 911 Mumbai stray dogs is Abhishek’s community on orkut. In next few replies and comments we will know more about this man who simply deserve to be a one of the best example for humanity in today’s terror world.

Welcome to Orkut’s Hall of Fame Abhishek, its our pleasure to have you here.

Thanks Zazo… I feel honored to be a part of Orkut’s Hall of Fame. I am glad you started this digital property where you showcase ordinary people doing something for the society. I am glad a lot of people would be motivated to do something.

Truly said Abhishek, Lets start from the start. Can you tell us how your childhood was? is it was like most of the children have their or your parents had noticed that inner love for animals in you? Please share that unforgettable part of your life.

Nopes, I was never a born animal lover, neither my parents had any kind of fascination for animals… So there was nobody in my family who could teach me what animals are all about. My cousin residing in Kolkata had a male spitz Buzo and I remember it was the year 2000 when I first discovered my animal loving side. Buzo was a bundle of joy and he ignited the torch of animal welfare. I always wanted to have a pet dog in my house but since my father was allergic to dogs I could never have a pet dog inside my house. But God had some other plans for me. In the same year I started looking after a female pup from the new litter of pups in my building. I named her Natu… Daily feeding, medication and cuddling became a part of my daily routine. Although she resided in my building premises she was tagged as a stray, but in my heart I already had developed the ownership. Buzo ignited the torch, but Natu led by example. She is a very gentle loving dog. She is 8 years today. Deep inside my heart I always wanted to give her a home, but I was just a student earning nothing. Neither had I hailed from a rich family that my father could have bought me a home to stay with Natu.

May be the answer to your question is “developing the soft corner for Natu” was the most unforgettable moment of my childhood. It was like an enlightenment that Buddha discovered after attaining Nirvana. But I was a teenager then… She made me a better human being. That’s why I always say people to have a pet dog. They will teach you a lot of things. The sense of responsibility to help animals in distress intensified only after Natu became an integral part of my life.

That seems interesting. Can you tell us more about Natu and the way he helped you grow up a better human being, as you said? Moreover, please tell us how the journey continued with its next step after Natu?

Well Natu has rekindled qualities of love and sensitivity in me… I shared such a beautiful relationship with her and today because of her grace I share a beautiful relationship with all dogs that I come across. I realized it’s important to value things, value people and be compassionate to every living being. It was like a father and child kind of relationship.

I believe when you are out to do something good there has to be a certain amount of repercussions you have to face. And it was exactly that way. Dogs have a serious litter problem and soon Natu was multiplied with her family. Then people from my building started revolting against me. For next 3 years people from my building starting dislocating puppies every time Natu and her off springs littered in the building premises. The law says you cannot dislocate any puppies outside its territory but in India animal laws are easily broken. I always wanted to take action against my building people but I kept quite for 3 years just for the sake of my family who never wanted me to severe ties with the people of my building. I have seen the pain of losing her infant pups, had been by her side, spoken to her for hours and hours, consoled her, promised her of soon taking her to a new house where she would have a roof over her head. I wasn’t strong enough to absorb all her pain and I remember in late 2003 I got into severe depression and even required psychiatric help. I firmly knew one thing unless and until I teach a lesson to the society people I wouldn’t recover. It was like someone coming and harming your kids and you are forced to keep your mouth shut.

But there had to be an aftermath for all the wrong-doings these society people inflicted on my dogs. It was an assault on me which I borne for 3 long years and I said myself that ‘Enough is enough,’ now I am going to give justice to my dogs and shall take all possible actions against my building people. It came on my defense mechanism and I knew that nobody could stop me from giving them justice.

I was successful in my mission. There was so much of drama in the whole process that the whole story was featured in The Times of India.

I embarrassed the people of my building in the police station… It was like “You strike the first blood, but I will hammer the final nail in the coffin.

Please tell us about 911 Mumbai Stray Dogs, what is the main objective and of this and is it limited to Mumbai only?

911 – Mumbai Stray Dogs is a community dedicated to the stray dogs of Mumbai and it may come as a surprise to a lot of people that it has over 500 odd members. Not all of them are active but it has a lot of action every now and then. Yes, this community is dedicated only to Mumbai members only. People from other cities are also welcomed to participate in the discussion. The best part of the community is its discussion and the way it’s conducted. I have always believed in one thing that if you love stray dogs, don’t just keep it restricted to feeding, fight for them when they are meted out with cruelty. I have always initiated topics which could tap their sensitive spots… I encourage them to be fearless and yes I could see a lot of people have started believing that love for animals is much more than just feeding them and yes I was an integral part in its making. Today people come and share the grief of their lost pets… For instance here’s an example of the replies that you can expect on 911…
Rest in peace Chottu…
all members of 911 wherever you are please spare a moment of silence for our little Chottu…
He was indeed precious to us…
Priti – thank you for sharing your grief with us… We are all with you… May God take proper care of Chottu… Don’t worry he must be playing in God’s lap…

Today the name ‘911 – Mumbai Stray Dogs’ only has online presence and I want to take it on-ground. I have some vague ideas in my mind. Very soon I want to start an ambulance service calling it as 911 – ARM (911 – Animal Rescue Mission) having logo imagery of a strong bicep holding animals…
The next phase would be starting an awareness campaign and call for more and more volunteers in the operation… At that time the campaign voice would be,

“Join 911 ARM…
With many arms we shall make it an ARMY”

This is not even a dream… I can see it happening in the coming 2 years. The big dream lies ahead…

Abhishek can you throw some light on your everyday activities and your profession?, I am sure your social work is completely different from your professional field.

I am a Senior Copywriter in a digital media company… Certainly my professional expertise and social work are 2 different aspects… It’s important for me to earn money so that I survive and at the same time do every bit of charity that I can do…

Out of my salary I have started donating a fixed sum of money to NGOs… Apart from that I voluntarily help injured animals – sometimes funding money for the ambulance service or sometimes personally taking the dogs to the nearby vet and bearing all the expenses… Sometimes I go so very overboard that my parents have to remind me that it’s my hard-earned money. It’s not only about animals… I have started making monthly donations to CRY and others. Now when I have my own 4-wheeler things have become much easier… I just can’t see any stray animal suffering on the roads. I am not affiliated to any organization with ID cards to flash before public. I know one thing that if I got to give justice to any animals fighting a cause of cruelty I can turn the world upside down. I did that when it came for the dogs of my own building and I am confident that I will do it every time a situation demands.

I openly feed the dogs. I feed over 30 dogs in a day. I ensure that I fulfill at least their one meal and it gives me immense satisfaction. These numbers include dogs from my previous firm, dogs in my locality and any dog that I come across… I personally don’t know how much I spend on the animals. I never felt the need to calculate. I don’t think about the money that I spend on animals. At the end of the month I am always a pauper, but I have never felt the dearth of money when I went out to help them. At then my credit card comes handy to purchase dog food from departmental stores. As the old saying in English goes, “Something that goes around comes around.” All the blessings of these injured dogs have never put me into any kind of financial dearth. Now I agree to this old saying in my context – whatever you spend on animals comes back to you with a big bonus. People from my area and others who know me completely rely on me when they see an injured animal. They believe that I can come down and help the strays in their societies with primary first-aid and if not so then certainly by admitting it to the hospital or by taking it to the vet. When I receive any such call there is always a feeling of not letting them down. I want to be the HOPE for all the dogs in the world. Honestly speaking and I am not embarrassed to say that more than the death of a close acquaintance (human being) I get more hurt when a dog passes away… If it’s a dog that I am regularly feeding the trauma resides in me for at least a fortnight.

Recently, a dog tormentor is running high in Mumbai. That person hasn’t been traced so far. He is believed to be gouging out dog’s eyes in the night. Such a saddist. Only 911 is the first ever community that announced a man-hunt for this jerk and kept a bounty of 5000 rupees for the person gathering information on this dog tormentor. I am anyways going to shell out that price bounty from my own pocket.

In my opinion if everyone is out on the street to do something for the society for the nature things would be different. I am also planning to initiate things with the Mumbai Education Board to inculcate lessons of animal welfare and environment conservation in our syllabus of Moral Science. Our education system also sucks. I don’t remember any lessons that taught me not to stone dogs, don’t be scared of dogs instead love them. There is an urgent need to teach kids about these ethics and ideologies. If this operation works out well, then I guess our coming generations would be having far more constructive minds than this perverted generations of today.

There are loads of things in my mind. I want to see all of them fulfilled before I am gone and be remembered by the people that, “Yes here’s the guy who changed the way how animals were treated in India.” And hopefully with the kind of background that I have got I believe I can spread more and more awareness and being a copywriter by profession I believe I can certainly change things and more importantly I am going on the right track.

Abhishek, I want to ask you that how and what we can do for solving the problem of stray dogs permanently? I mean to say is that being on the street with no shelter or proper food is a big problem for dogs, nor people like you are everywhere in India. So, can you tell us that why this problem came up and what are possible solutions for it. Except India and some other underdeveloped countries stray dogs are no where. Correct me if I am wrong anywhere.

Developed countries like US, UK, Singapore and Australia have no stray dogs meandering on the streets. May be they have killed all the stray dogs when they were developing as a nation. There is not a single stray dog left. In those countries if pet dogs are abandoned there are 100 NGOs who come at their rescue. India is different. India is not a country that lies on below-the-poverty line but still it has stray dogs and this is a good sign. One must accept the fact that stray dogs are a part of our social structure. I don’t understand the simple logic of Municipal bodies assaulting or imposing fines on people who feed them. How many times do cops go and trouble NGOs (working for street children) when they go and commit petty crimes. As a matter of fact our Indian Pariah breed is in huge demand as a pet in Israel. You can see a number of Pariah breeds in the house of Jews who take so good care of dogs…

I may sound pro-dogs and anti-human when I am saying this. But the truth is I don’t see any problem with the existence of stray dogs. The legends say dogs are ancestors of wolves. Human beings who went for hunting in the jungle started sharing a morsel of food with the wolves. It was only when human beings started domesticating wolves dogs evolved to share greater bonding with the human beings. So the question is very simple. Human beings wanted dogs and they have to live with it. They really can’t blame our ancestors who fed them and made dogs out of the wolves. At that time may be security was the reason. It would be selfish on the part of human beings to say NO to the existence of dogs.

I am not saying that dogs haven’t bitten people. If such incidents are reported it can be due to many reasons. A particular dog may have been troubled by locals of that area. If a dog is frequently troubled it develops a strong defense mechanism and in such a case it may bite many people out of self-defense. Secondly dogs are important to balance the environment or else population of rodents will multiply. Harmful bacteria may multiply in the garbage bins. If God has made this planet it has made things to balance the ecosystem. You may ask how US, UK and Australia are surviving. Well they are living in an artificial world where they decompose things with the use of electricity. When global warming will hit all of us these nations will be first in the list to give up. India would still survive it till the very end.

Well so the answer to your question would be, “LET EVERY HOUSING SOCIETY ADOPT ONE STRAY DOG.” As less as 5 rupees a day/family would ensure the maintenance of a poor creature which in turn would be a bundle of joy for the whole society providing love and security to everyone. Society people should ensure that their population shouldn’t go beyond the limit and it should also sterilize some dogs if it demands. Such a situation would even see a raise in the income of veterinary doctors at every lane and certainly a rise in the number of veterinary doctors. More the number of doctors in our nation better are our chances to fight every taboo of the society.

India is a beautiful country. So why to kill? If other countries have killed why should we do? Our kings and emperors have even hunted wild donkeys which were so docile and never realized that human beings have actually come down to shoot arrows at them. Tiger is our national animal and it’s such a shame that we don’t even have a single Royal Bengal Tiger left in our country. It’s high time for Indians to realize things and act accordingly. India is a peace loving nation that has even greeted terrorists with open arms. We have all evidences that Pakistan was behind the terror attacks in Mumbai, still we crib for more evidences. So why run after the life of these poor creatures? In my opinion India should lead by example. It’s soon going to become a developed nation and then we must proudly say to US, UK and Australia, “See we developed as a nation and that too without harming any creatures and our environment.”

What consequences you usually face when you step forward to protect any dog? What are those common human objections and interference? Or is it wrong and you do get human support sometimes?

Sometimes you have to bear the brunt and sometimes you give it back. I have seldom faced the brunt of people. See the situation depends from person to person. Normally in my locality nobody comes in my way coz now they have been seeing me feeding the dogs since ages. When it comes to treatment the number gets far more reduced.

People are less tolerant when it comes feeding because they feel we are directly influencing the population of strays, when it comes to treatment people somewhere know at the back of their mind that we are doing a good job and they don’t interfere. If any dog is meted out with cruelty then the situation is completely different. At that time we make their lives miserable. But again here it depends on the situation. Some people secretly poison the dogs, while some illiterate people after killing a dog in public may try to act smart. At that time it’s important to get media attention and defame the people involved in it. Media plays a crucial role in the field of animal welfare. Well, I am very impulsive when it comes to protect animal rights. I have even beaten up people to safeguard animal laws. I know it’s wrong and certainly not leaving a good example before people. But sometimes I really feel like taking a gun and shoot these people who unnecessarily create havoc for these poor creatures.

Even today I don’t know how I would react tomorrow when the next case of animal cruelty reaches my ears… For instance when Kerala was out for killing all dogs against the laws of Supreme Court, I made 10000 calls to the Mayor of Kottayam to stop this act of cowardice. I have even threatened them to the extent of suing them in the court and even starting a hate campaign against Kerala which would stop their tourism industry… But those jerks were not even bothered. I do every possible thing that I could possibly do. After every rescue act I feel so much of contentment within. It’s hard to define that.

Such a noble and determined way, I must say..Okay , can you brief us and make us learn about laws applicable and available in this respect which can safeguard these creatures from the human torture?

I don’t follow the laws that are written in the big fat books. To be very honest I am not even well-versed with all the laws…
There is n-number of sections that come under the laws. I have an inventory of all the laws, legal notices and similar drafts that I use time and again when a situation demands…
I am sorry if I start listing down all the laws then I have to post 50 more threads out of which some of them would be applicable for poultry laws, licensing and other things related to cruelty of animals issued by Supreme Court and Union bodies.
This link will help you to figure out few of the many laws that come under Indian jurisdiction.
http://www.strawindia.org/STRAWPAGES/Laws-btm.htm

Abhishek, May I know where you see yourself in next 5 years? Any dream or target to accomplish? Also, tell us your likes and dislikes in brief, apart from your passion for dog’s welfare.

In the next 5 years I see myself as one of the richest man in India. The reason is simple. The kind of plans that I have got would require a lot of money. Today when I am earning well I realized that money speaks. There was a time when I used to tell my strays every single day that, “Patience, bear the pain of these idiots in our society. Time will change I will get you a new house.” To earn money I would certainly require some source of business. I think by that time I would want to own a chain of agencies in the world of media, may be something like Percepts or Mindshare… For me sky has always been the limit. I am obnoxiously ambitious. I am well respected in my professional arena and to an extent successful as perceived by my parents but I am still hungry for more.

As I said I want to extend the online presence of my 911 community. Very soon I want to start an ambulance service and then spread my wings with a small hospital. Just like Ambanis and Tatas changed the economy of India, I want to change the face of India – a greener India with intelligent and compassionate Indians. I want to align a certain chain of USPs associated to 911 – 9 minutes and 11 seconds. Before my death I want to create state-of-art animal hospitals across the cities; first with metros then mini metros and then in every 15-20 kms radius of India. Here 9 minutes 11 seconds of USP would be unique. This would be the first charitable organization that will promise to come at the rescue of an animal in 9 minutes and 11 seconds. We have heard Pizza Hut delivering pizzas in less than 30 minutes. 911 would be a step forward to reach in less than 10 minutes. When I say state-of-art hospitals it’s nothing less than a posh luxury infrastructure like Imran Khan’s Cancer Foundation. I take inspiration from that chap. I remember his interview when he said he traveled across 23 countries in 30 days just for the sake of donations. People loved him so much that they removed all their belongings to help him in the making of his hospital. I don’t know whether I am looking out for donations from people. I certainly don’t have the kind of fame Imran possessed while making his hospital. Imran says that his Cancer Foundation runs in the legacy of his late wife. My state-of-art hospitals would run in the legacy of my late pet dog Guria (Natu’s first daughter) who died an untimely death while she was a stray. Today Natu and 2 other stray dogs that grew up in company of Natu live in a plush luxury flat and I am thankful to those people who helped me realize these dreams. Thankfully I didn’t let Natu down. It’s like a Happy Ending you see. But the world is yet to be conquered…

Being a copywriter I am always on a thinking spree. It’s like I am always on a self-discovery mode searching for the great light bulb moment. I am always curious to know about facts which could boost my knowledge. I love music. I play my flute (7-holed Indian Bansuri) whenever I get time and I love playing it the most sitting by a beach. I am learning it on my own. Somewhere in the near future I am planning to learn Tabla and Indian Classical Music as well. May be further down the line I will learn the essence of Sufi… Apart from that I am a Scrabble and Chess enthusiast. Finally they act as brain boosters as we all know. Scrabble has always been a copywriter’s game. Although I am not a champion in any of them, but I can still give a tough time to many celebrated players.

I love fast driving too… But I have never tried that on Indian roads fearing that I may end up injuring some dogs. I am not a movie freak but tend to get completely carried away with stories of human struggle…

That was a wonderful interview and undoubtedly I love to read it again and again, I am thankful to orkut for giving me this platform in the form of a community to meet and talk to people with great character like you. Abhishek I wish you all the very best for your future and for your loving friends. Pass out my warm cuddle to them.

Shall certainly do so and I am sure they would feel the warmth of your heart

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