This street dog rescue initiative has been founded by a local guy, Rakesh Shukla, who is organising curated comedy shows
Rakesh Shukla with Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa
The poet Pablo Neruda once wrote that only dogs know how to be happy. Be that as it may, there are plenty of reasons in the streets of Bengaluru to make the stray dogs of the city unhappy. One person who has made it his life’s mission to make sure that the most joyful of creatures remain joyful is Rakesh Shukla, who founded Voice of Stray Dogs – a street dog rescue initiative. And it’s VOSD, who through a series of exquisitely curated comedy shows have been collecting proceeds for the welfare of the city’s furry friends. Featuring the best comic acts from the city and outside, the shows which have had performances from Sanjay Manaktala to Sumukhi Suresh are fittingly called ‘Barking Mad.’ September 5 will see the fourth edition of the show at Indiranagar Sangeeth Sabha.
For Rakesh Shukla, the idea for these shows came as a reaction to the sordid calls for dog rescue and adoption that crowded his social media pages. “Rescue is a sad business. Graphic pictures have to be put up and then you depend on good Samaritans. We thought, how do we do something that is different? So we fixated upon stand up comedy – something that allows you to have a good evening with friends in addition to your ticket money adding to the funds that we so desperately require. Till now, all the funding of VoSD was done by me and we could only affect about 10 to 20 percent of dogs in the city. But now, people are coming in to these sold out shows in large numbers. In a three hour show, we show a minute’s audio-visual clip on dogs, and it still moves everyone,” says the man who along with his associate Sangeeta has been running the initiative.
For most of the comedians and comediennes who have performed in the Barking Mad shows, the cause is what has pulled at the heartstrings. For Pooja Ruparel, who famously played Kajol’s sister in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, comedy allowed her to take the softer approach while airing her views about the cause. She says, “I have a little Chihuahua and whenever I go on these runs, I see these strays which absolutely melt my heart. I am more than aware of animal welfare groups and this was truly something great to be a part of. The crowd was great and comedy allowed us to speak seriously without pathos.”
For city name Sumukhi Suresh, it is the sharpness of organisation in the event that made it imperative for her to perform in it. “I was really taken in by the way they pitched the proposal to me. You do not find such a high level of curation in charitable endeavours and yet here Barking Mad is! The crowd was sharp and even though it was a Sunday, they were there in large numbers! I don’t have a dog of my own, but the golden retriever near my library has been making puppy dog eyes at me since forever. She has totally made a convert out of me,” laughs the comedienne.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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