On
the morning of 15th of April 2012, a bunch of youngsters were scurrying
around in the last minute preparations for a dog show. Routine? Nope.
This dog show was unlike other shows. It was exclusively for The Great
Indian Dog, the Indian Native Dog, The INDog, and a bunch of other names
that we don't feel is good enough to describe these beautiful breeds.
For more information on the INDog, please refer to
http://www.indog.co.in/.
With absolutely no background in
conducting dog shows, whatever was lacking was made up in terms of
passion & love for the Indian dog. There were engineers, doctors,
students, homemakers, web designers, & NGOes who all came together
to arrange this platform to make some noise for the Indian dog.
We
always had lamented the fact that conventional dog shows had no place
for the Indian dog. A beautiful breed that inspite of having wonderful
homes still evoked a response of "oh! you have a stray! " at the vet's
clinic. Something had to change. Was the term Indian equivalent to
stray? And if it wasn't then what were we, who could tell the
difference, doing with the knowledge.
Somebody had to go out
there and tell people that Indian dogs don't exclusively belong to the
streets or slums. They were as good as any other breed, probably better
equipped with their natural genetic makeup without interference from
inbreeding.
The team took off to Chennai to learn from
The Wacky Mongrel Show that is conducted by Blue Cross. The BC team
from Chennai welcomed us enthusiastically and said "Hey trespassing is
welcome. Go out there and tell everybody that the Indian dog has
arrived".
We decided to call our show "The Great Indian Dog Show" to make the greatness a little more obvious and literal.
The big day arrived mid summer and we rolled out our Indian Dogs in Style.
Bangalore
had some beautiful people who strutted their Indian dogs and their love
for them and it penetrated language, class & other social barriers.
The only thing that stood out was The Great Indian Dog.
For images click on the link. http://www.thegreatindiandogshow.com/gallery.html
We
had extensive media coverage that we credit completely to Ms. Saleela
Kappan, Red Communications. She did a brilliant job of not just helping
us reach out to the audience that was present at the venue but lakhs of
people got wind of the show thanks to her efforts.
http://www.thegreatindiandogshow.com/media.html
What's a show without the participants?
All
our entrees were winners that afternoon. They all were decorated with
medals that said "proud to be an Indian Dog" .However we had some
special awards for some special ones.
http://www.thegreatindiandogshow.com/winners.html
Human
companions shared their experiences, some witty, some emotional and
some very uplifting with a wonderful rescue that turned into a happy
ending for both the human & the dog.
Popular
Kannada cinestar Mr Jaggesh graced the event with his wife and gave a
very moving message to all those who were present, particularly to the
media. His wife, Mrs Parimala, also spoke about her love for her rescued
dogs and said they were not dogs to them, only children.
We also had other NGOes that communicated their message to the public - Samabhava, Midnight's children and Vanamitra.
There was also an adoption camp held by Let's Live Together that got beautiful homes to rescued Indian pups at the venue.
The show was conducted in association with an NGO, Sarvodaya Sevabhavi Samstha.
We
all went back home exhausted and exhilarated that night, overwhelmed
with the adulation & response we got for the Indian dog.
But
we did not know that our journey had just begun. We continued to
network as a team and finally made the decision to form an independent
association that would solely focus on branding the Indian dog the right
way,the way it so deserves.
Currently we are not affiliated with any NGO and solely work with them on need basis.
We
are gearing up for the 2013 edition of The Great Indian Dog Show with
the same enthusiasm that we started out with and probably a little more
confidence. See you at the show.