Dogs of Kolkata : Kolkata Diaries II

Kolkata is least expected to stick to the high virtues of hygiene and cleanliness . Everywhere you go you find streets littered with stubs of burnt cigarettes , the tiny plastic vessels that once were filled with fragrance tea , licked to the hilt by the tea connoisseur. The stray cattle is as omnipresent as are the humans . With almost the most diverse diseases afflicting them , they represent the neglected side of the city , which is finding it hard to provide care to more humanly brethren .

So on my jog , every now and then , on the track of concrete at Salt Lake GD Park , I see what Abhishek Bachhan saw when he ran in the meanest streets of Walled City with an iPhone pumping adrenaline . Dirt , Uncleanliness and the Civility of the Dogs , Stray ones.

In Kolkata , individualism has ceased to exist. The taxis , the Cabs , the Workers are unionized and this has rubbed onto the stray cattle. One hardly finds dogs in solitude or in the company of humans ,they always on lookout for the carnal consummation . However one thing striking about them is even they are oblivious of the surroundings , consummating right in front of more amorous humans , barking every now and then to make their presence felt , and warding of intruders who may unleash hell aka the Animal Farm.

These stray dogs are well bred when it comes to reciprocating hugs and affection showered on them now and then by passers by who especially at tea stalls are more than willing to share their tits and bits of confectionery. It astonishes me how even the dogs , under duress have turned to vegetarianism to keep them barking enough . Some more caring , Maneka Gandhi types even care to bring especially cooked food to feed them where they assemble as ritual , fuelling suspicion in me of it being and Anti Bone meet .

As a jogger it has always bothered me to have a stray dog , follow me with the ill intention of stripping me of some of my flesh. But even here the dogs are oblivious . In fact to my utter surprise some of them have even lent me way while they came in direct collision of my course .

In Delhi , it is next to impossible to postulate that . The difference between the two cities is striking and it takes in its fold the fauna too .