Every evening, dogs around Ballygunge eagerly wag their tails, as a woman gracefully steps off her scooty with a bucket full of food. They stand in line, as though awaiting their turn in an upscale buffet. She calls out their names, and one by one, they step forward with twinkling eyes.
Since the lockdown, Aarti Rajani has become a beacon of hope for south Kolkata’s stray dogs. Whether it’s waking up at the crack of dawn to cook kilos of food, or taking on the responsibility to sterilise hundreds of dogs, Aarti has made it her mission to care for them.
Growls to gratitude
Funnily enough, Aarti once disliked dogs. “In 2010, when my husband (Mahikant Rajani) and son (Jaimin) first brought a dog into our house, I told them, ya toh ghar mein ye rahega, ya main rahoongi (either he stays in the house, or I do). I felt like he would dirty the house and shed hair everywhere,” she chuckles. But within six months, their pug, Toyo, became such an integral part of the house that the Rajanis stopped going out together to make sure someone was always at home with him. “When my son moved to Pune, the attachment grew stronger, and Toyo would sleep with us on our bed.”
Aarti with Toyo, her pug, who inspired her to fall in love with dogs, and (right) with her her favourite pooch Sweety, who she helped nurse back to health after an injury Courtesy Arati Rajani (left)
For a decade, Toyo received abundant love in the Rajani household. However, the pandemic made Aarti realise that most dogs weren’t as lucky. Her morning walks brought her in proximity with some hungry dogs outside Ballygunge Science College. “While feeding them, a crow tried to fly away with one biscuit, and accidentally dropped it inside the college. The dogs inside the college went into a frenzy over that one biscuit, even trying to bite each other,” she recalls. Some former students informed her that the dogs inside the college were on the brink of starvation and desperately needed feeding. Aarti decided to help, expecting to find two dogs.
Instead she found 20 skeletal and starving dogs. She promptly bought some bread from a shop. The dogs were so hungry that they wiped off five loaves within a minute! “That made me realise how privileged my Toyo was. I felt that every single one of these dogs was entitled to nourishing food, and I decided to feed them regularly.”
Paws on the ground
Aarti has given names to each of the dogs, and they all respond to those names too
As she continued to feed the 20 dogs inside Ballygunge Science College, Aarti soon realised the problem was much larger. Word reached her that more hungry dogs were living in ITI College. While carrying food to these two colleges, she noticed other dogs chasing her scooty, their eyes filled with hunger. Walking near Rabindra Sarobar, she also spotted a mother dog and her puppies looking at her expectantly. A nearby school had six dogs that a lady would feed before she was diagnosed with cancer. The lady asked Aarti to take over. “I couldn't discriminate while feeding. Agar ek ko khilana hai, toh sabhi ko khilana hai. (If I feed one, I will feed them all),” she smiles. Soon, the number of dogs she was feeding crossed 50.
Barely a month into her feeding routine, Aarti realised that food alone wouldn’t solve the problem. “Every female dog has two breeding cycles a year, and each cycle results in about seven puppies. Besides this, many suffer from cases of vaginal cancer, and finding homes for strays is nearly impossible,” she sighs. This thought pushed her to start sterilising the dogs, beginning with the females. “We love the dogs we have and will do everything to save them, but we can’t have more of them suffer.” This was the guiding thought behind her mission: to make south Kolkata puppy-free.
With her scooty and her trusty food bucket, Aarti feeds and treats dogs from all over south Kolkata
Leashing the problem
Aarti began working with NGOs who offered to sterilise the dogs for free if she could bring them in. Every week, she would send four to five dogs. Soon, word about her work spread in Ballygunge. With the help of NGO and animal shelter, Ashari, she launched a massive sterilisation project that covered not just Ballygunge, but Park Circus, Lohapool, Samsul Huda Road, Beckbagan, Topsia and Kasba. Over the past four years, Aarti has helped sterilise over 400 dogs.
Her efforts have been recognised by the Ballygunj Military Camp, which invited her to sterilise over a 100 dogs on their premises.
Aarti approaches each sterilisation with the meticulous planning of a medical examiner. “Every Saturday, I survey the dogs I need to send from a particular area. I record videos of all their markings, and I maintain a diary of the dogs I have missed. We need to be extremely careful, since the dogs must be returned exactly where they are picked up from – we cannot even leave them 10 steps away,” she explains, adding that she is yet to sterilise 300 dogs.
Aarti took a short workshop with animal welfare organisation Ashari to learn first aid so she can administer basic treatment for her dogs
Healing the right pack
Aarti realised that breeding was only one part of the problem. Diseases like distemper, parvo and rabies were especially rampant in indies, and if she wanted to truly improve their lives, she would have to vaccinate them too. In addition to this, cases of abuse, acid attacks and maggot wounds were also common. “I took a short training workshop from Ashari, where I learnt how to administer all the first aid myself, from giving injections, to setting up IVs,” Aarti smiles. Now when she sets out on feeding rounds, she carries a bag with all the necessary medicines and administers some form of spot treatment every day. Till date, she says she has treated over 1,000 dogs.
A day in the life of a dog’s best friend
Evidently, her entire day revolves around these dogs, whom she lovingly calls her children. She wakes up at 6am to cook, and goes on her first feeding round from 7-8.30am. After a short swim, she returns home by 9.30am to complete the house chores before heading to the market. Cooking en masse for almost 60 dogs every day makes a grocery run mandatory. “Roughly 10kg of food is prepared in a day. So I generally buy 100kg of rice at a time!” she laughs. She prepares food for her second round by 4pm, and goes feeding from 6pm to 8pm. “Pura din isme chala jaata hai, lekin raat ko neend bohot achi aati hai. (My entire day goes in this, but I get the best sleep at night) My children can’t speak, but I can see the joy in their eyes,” she beams. In the past four years, Aarti had relentlessly cooked for her children through sickness and health. “Once, I had an accident and fractured my knee. I would ride the scooter with one leg hanging aloft, just to feed my children! ”
Aarti’s dream is to form an NGO with her friends and set up a shelter for special needs street dogs and the ones who cannot survive on the street
While she can’t be everywhere, she is always ready to prepare food if someone can collect it from her home to feed dogs in their area. A boy from Lohapool collects food from her everyday to feed 10 dogs in his area. “I can’t be everywhere, but as a homemaker, cooking never deters me,” she grins.
Chasing a dream
Her infectious energy has ensured a steady flow of funds. When Aarti started her sterilisation project, each operation cost Rs 1,700. Today, the cost has gone up to Rs 2,400. She confesses that initially she did worry about the funds but somehow, people almost always came through. “These kids have their meal written in their destiny. Whenever I need funds, all I have to do is put up a WhatsApp status and I get so many calls,” Aarti says. She also credits the memory of Toyo, who passed away in 2022. “Even now, we can’t believe that Toyo isn’t with us, but the purity of his soul is what keeps me going. I feed all my children in his memory,” she adds.
Aarti dreams of taking her efforts to the next level by creating a shelter for paralysed, blind and aged dogs. She hopes to form an NGO with her friends and find an open space suitable for all the dogs who can’t survive on the streets.
Aarti with her son, singer-songwriter Jaimin Rajani
Her love for the animals is evident in her daily routine. At times, Aarti often drives a few extra kilometres, just because she knows that one dog is waiting for her. It’s hard to believe there was a time when she didn’t like dogs. “If I don’t see my kids for even a day, I feel like I won’t be able to live. If I give love to one of them, four more pounce on me. It’s the biggest commitment of my life. I can skip cooking for my son, Jaimin, for a day, but never for my children!”
