I have seen dog lovers everywhere and many of them are in my apartment too. Very conveniently they take their leftover food and go a distance to dispense them. And when they enter the apartment, they are thrashed. A few others use biscuits to attract stray dogs to places where they are not welcomed. By doing so, people believe, they are doing a penance to the sin they have committed or an anticipatory bail for the sin to be committed for the day. But one of my journo friends Basant Rawat and his wife Chaya are unique. They are also dog lovers but the uniqueness about this couple is they have all these stray dogs inside their home. What makes them real animal lover is the fact that many of these dogs are picked up from the road badly injured or with broken limbs. They are nurtured, treated and then kept within their home. I don’t know what their neighbors feel about this. But they will certainly not like the human names given to these dogs.

Few years back one fine Sunday morning, I was called to a Dog show in Ahmedabad. When I reached their, lo behold, Basant and Chaya were there with their pets competing with hundreds of expensive dog owners. Result, as they say, is immaterial. What matters is compassion.