“For as long as I can remember, I had always wanted to have a pet in my house. But I was discouraged from having one in the house and as the years rolled forward, I forgot about that desire of mine. In Addition to schooling, I was really passionate about cricket and I trained regularly in that. However when the lockdown rolled in, I was caught off guard like everyone. Online schooling got to me and virtual exhaustion took a toll on my mental health. I couldn’t focus on many things and with time, I started to attract a lot of other things like depression and anxiety. It was around this time that I came across a kids mentor by the name John. He had a program online for kids upto a certain age group to try and train them in some basic skill building and identity building aspects. I enrolled for the session and the main thing that was discussed was for each of us to bring a shareable story. The concept was that we each had to come up with a story that we would be remembered by when we grow old. I took my own time to think over it but I still couldn’t come up with one. The week-long mentorship ended and I enrolled for the one year program. As I pondered about this identity of mine, I remembered my old desire to grow around dogs. It was still a big no-no in my house and I stepped out to feed stray dogs in my area. Owing to the lockdown, most of them had been starving. So I started with feeding them biscuits everyday. With time, I slowly started to move around the area and started to feed pets everywhere I could see. As this grew more regular and consistent, my fear of strays slowly waned away and I started to build a beautiful relationship with these creatures. Their eyes would speak of utmost love and adulation and it just melted my heart that they were left on the streets and often treated so poorly by the society. I took it upon myself to start to educate different members from the society on the ‘Symbiotic relationship’ we have with these beings. We each can’t exist without the other and unless we work in a balance, we can’t protect the ecosystem. With the help of my mentor, I came in touch with an animal rescuer under whom I have been training for the past several months. I have also spoken on the importance of saving our stray dogs in a TED Ed talk organised in Chennai. All I have to say here is that the world can do a lot better with a little more kindness in it. And these strays require nothing more than just our love and attention. They will just give it their all.”