Many in Chennai are doing their bit to make sure that the city’s strays do not starve during the lockdown. Some are taking a little more initiative than most. Take, for instance, Pooja Parameswaran, a marketing executive at one of the city’s leading hotels. Till the first week of April, she had been feeding about 15 to 20 stray dogs in her neighbourhood who had been confused by the sudden disappearance of scraps by friendly passers-by.
Now, she is feeding over 100 dogs every day. “I think the dogs are moving from their territories to others’ in search of food; the situation is quite bad.” Needless to say, a single person’s resources are not enough to sustain this initiative. So, Pooja has roped in hotels and restaurants from around the city, to give out a certain portion of boiled rice and chicken for the city’s strays.
How did this begin? Being charity, it began right at home —or from Pooja’s home turf, GRT Hotels. “When my COO got to know, he offered to help with separately made food for more people [to feed strays], if they pick it from the hotel. I posted in Pound, a Facebook page for animal welfare in Chennai and other places.”
Volunteers feeding over 3,500 dogs reached out, from Porur, Kotturpuam, Pallikaranai, Ashok Nagar, Shenoy Nagar, Pondy Bazaar and other areas. “Especially on the beaches, where dogs are used to being given leftovers from the fish fry stalls, they were facing an absence of food,” explains Pooja. Soon, multiple other hotels joined in to help them. “In GRT Group, Radisson Blu Hotel is giving eight to 10 kilogram of rice/chicken and any other extra meats cooked with turmeric. Green Park is providing 10 kilogram rice with chicken, same prep as above. The Residency Towers is also providing eight to 10 kilogram rice and meat same per day. Green Park is providing 15 kilograms, whenever they can.” Ten kgs of rice, says Pooja, can feed approximately 100 dogs. Pooja has begun a crowdfunding campaign on Milaap for it.
Chennai-based Guru Narayan’s sketch of his friends
On the other hand, couple Guru Narayanan and Kavya Subramaniam have been helping a neighbour in Shastri Nagar to get rice and biscuits from nearby grocery stores to feed the strays. “We cook around one-and-a-half kilos of curd rice every day, and there is Pedigree dog food for the puppies. On our street, we feed about 15 dogs,” says Guru, “Our neighbour takes the rest of the food to Thiruvanmiyur bus stand to feed more dogs there.”
Guru has come up with a novel way of getting others to pitch in. He has begun an inbuilt app called sketchbook on his tablet, to make what he calls “amateur sketches” of his friends. He has decided to charge ₹200 per sketch.
“Since I spend ₹150 on curd and ₹70 on biscuits everyday, I cited ₹200 when someone offered to pay for a sketch. The money is to make others who can’t step out feel involved.”
