The Pariahs

I haven’t found a single home for Sugar and Honey.

Their fault is that they are Desi.
It doesn’t matter that they are beautiful.
It doesn’t matter that they are the canine version of human ramp models.
It doesn’t matter that they are naughty and affectionate.
It doesn’t matter that they are no fuss, low maintenance and perfectly attuned to the climate of our country.

What matters is that they are not ‘breed’ dogs from foreign countries.
What matters is that they are not perceived to be the status symbols that a dog of foreign origin apparently is.
What matters is that one doesn’t have to pay fancy prices for them and that takes away the chance for the owners to show off their economic prowess.

Well, the 'Breaking News' is that they are ‘Desi’ dogs in a land full of ‘Desi’ people and last time I checked there were more ‘Desi’s than ‘Videsi’s in our population.

It would seem that mirrors are in short supply.

It is telling on the nature of our pet owners how shallow they are. Any ‘breed’,  however much genetically compromised, are the chosen ones.

St. Bernards in the plains of a hot and often humid country, more often than not cooped up in city flats, Rotweilers, Bulldogs, Pugs, Great Danes, Labradors, Dalmatians, the list goes on and on, are drooled (pun unintended) over. I can understand the rescues, but to buy a 'breed' and encourage the breeder to breed some more dogs doomed to an miserable life is what I will never understand.

But no matter how terribly wrong, how terribly torturous it is for them to live in this country or context, who cares? They are money spinners.

They are as valued as top end cars that are just as inappropriate for our Indian roads bar a very few.


It makes for such sad commentary on our society.

Being 'insiders' they are 'outsiders'.

They are the pariahs.