The compassionate prostitute

We all have seen female prostitutes. From a distance, most of us. We have an idea, a rough idea about what she will say and how she will talk and behave. We have these ideas because of what the television and movies tell us. Most of us have not actually interacted with them. Today I got mistaken as a prostitute because I stood in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As always, my adventures are somehow always connected with animals. There was this one rescue call which I had been unable to attend for two days. It was bothering me a lot. I had received images of the animal and the dog seemed to be in obvious agony. However, the dog was located in a very busy area of the Thane station and hence going and searching for this fellow became next to impossible during peak hours. So with great determination and a grim husband / vet, I set out at 10.38 pm towards the station...to find this dog by hook or by crook.
We surveyed platform 7-8, 9-10. The men! Omg! It was quite a sight. They had clearly never ever seen a woman in their entire lives. Let alone one walking around at 11 pm in the night fully clothed and with a back pack. Grim husband was surveying one side of the platform and hence I was walking alone on the other side feeling the stares of these strange men. Nevertheless, at times like these, you have to put on 'Eye of the Tiger' music and walk with purpose...or even 'Some kind of monster' intro part will do.
So finally after a lot of running around, we found the dog on an over bridge lying almost motionless and giving up on life. On looking closely, I noticed he was breathing. Phew!! I let out a sigh of relief and husband began treating the dog. I had smartly packaged some malai kulfi on the way to hopefully trick the dog into eating medicines in case it was unfriendly. Okay, it wasn't really my idea to do that. It was Hemant's. He is the smart one. We all know that.
So post treatment, I insisted we pick hi up from the location and move him to a less crowded location. And while we were treating the dog, atleast 5 people stopped by, pulled out their phones and took videos and photos of us and what we were doing. For a moment there, I felt like a rock star and then I realised that I had no clue what they were going to do with the images/ videos. Decided to ignore them and continue work.
Soon enough, we picked him up and moved him to an area which seemed less traveled. On picking him up, we realised he had only three legs. One of his fore limbs was missing and the one which he probably used to support himself was now in a swollen bleeding mess full of maggots. Poor dog really. And to top it all, he was quite old.
We realised he had no energy or capacity to go and hunt for food, so Hemant decided to go and get some more food (whatever was available at 11.45 in the night) and come back. I told him I would watch the dog.
A couple of minutes passed and I soon realized there were a lot of men staring at me again. That was nothing new. I was just about to start playing the music in my head again, when suddenly I noticed some of them were smiling at me through their broken teeth and ugly moustaches. Soon after, a young boy, well dressed and decent looking came very close to, walked by and stopped a little ahead. One of my hands was on the railing of the bridge. I soon gear the boy tapping on the bridge expecting some kind of an answer in return. I turned around to see that the boy had now taken a seat on one of the railings and was staring at me keenly. The reason I am calling him a boy is because he really was one. He was not older than a college student. I turned around and faced him and began to stare back at him. Hate it when we women have to bow down to a man's provocative stare!
Of course technology let's you down when you most need it. My phone with the camera had gone off. I couldn't click a picture. I pretended to click one with the other phone I had. As I was in the action of doing this, two more young boys came very close to me and one of them came up to me and said in Hindi that I should not stand there. He was quite rude and disrespectful. I said I would stand where I want and that I was attending to the dog and waiting for the doctor. The boy and his friend clearly didn't believe me, they passed me and went ahead and stopped. In the meanwhile, the first guy ( the one who I had pretended to click a picture of) came upto me and stopped beside me. I looked at him and really loudly asked him what he wanted and why he was staring at me. He was caught completely off guard and said that he was just walking by and started to pretend to move down the staircase. I asked him again what his problem was very loudly and to this he mumbled something like nothing and began to run away. At the same time,husband started walking up the staircase and I very loudly and animatedly started to explain to him what was happening and how all the men were staring. The young boy had disappeared below the staircase and the two fellows who were far away began approaching us. This time I asked them very rudely and loudly what they wanted and why they had come here. To this the boy said sorry he spoke rudely earlier and that this area was not good. The two boys were very drunk and were clearly upto some mischief but we had no time and besides we were really hungry, we wanted to help the dog, settle him and leave. The boys - to prove that they were good boys - stayed with us throughout the treatment, helped us remove maggots and helped us carry the dog to a safer location. They were drunk but nice. We said our goodbyes and left the scene.
So it was a lesson learnt today about the various ways people judge other people sometimes because you just stand somewhere or wear something. Sometimes people just belittle women and objectify them when they see her alone at night. It is not a nice feeling to know that women cannot walk around confidently even today late at night unless accompanied by a male. On my way back, I asked grim Hemant why women don't stand on the road and stare at men and objectify them. Hemant just smiled and said that women just don't do these kind of things. I often wonder how it is to be a man and if there would be some additional thoughts , feelings or emotions that I would experience if I was one.

The emotional beings

Every time I talk to someone who has a pet, I realise that they take a lot of my time. Being a person who has to meet a minimum of 25 pet parents a day, you can very well understand how I must feel about this. The fact that I am impatient does not help the situation much either. Sometimes the stories are interesting but very very rarely do they actually surprise me. Let me give you a for instance. Today I was at a training session for women entrepreneurs in Mumbai and once I spoke to anyone at the meeting about my initiative Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Foundation, immediately (if the person was an animal lover) I would see a twinkle in their eye. Each and every person I spoke to, would begin to share their personal experiences with animals and speak about their pets and put forth complete knowledge(or all the knowledge they had, whichever was more) in front of me, on the subject.
I wondered today very secretly about how it would sound if someone spoke about soap to a soap merchant in the same way. Here is what played out in my head -

Mrs Nice - Hi, what business are you in?

Me - I am in the business of Soap rescue, care and welfare.

Mrs Nice - Soaps? Oh wow. This is quite a unique profession. I love soaps. Actually I have used a variety of soaps in the past. Just today morning also I used one!

Me - Oh I see, which one did you use today morning?

Mrs Nice - I used the one which has a rose fragrance.

Me - Rose fragrance - great. That is quite a calm and nice fragrance. Goes with most families. I have often observed that out of all the soaps we manufacture, rose soaps are the most popular.

Mrs Nice - My rose soap is really special. It does not melt too much if I let it sit a little extra in the water and even does not lather more than required. Actually, I have used the same brand for around 5 years now and some days I have not gone to office because I ran out of soap and could not have a good shower.

Me - That's unfortunate! Sorry to hear that. Incase you decide to switch to a different soap brand, do let me know. I have good quality soaps. Many are sourced locally and we make sure that their quality is upto the mark. We also make sure that the soap is packaged well prior to reaching the customer. Infact some of our customers really appreciate the effort we put into packaging. I always say, a well packaged soap is a good soap!

Mrs Nice - I will definitely get in touch with you incase I decide to get some more soap.

Me - That's great! Do like our page on facebook. We keep updating the page with the latest brands and latest innovations on a daily basis. Oh and btw, we also have a trial period and return policy. In case you and the soap do not  do well together, we make sure to take the soap back. So it is more like a try and use soap and incase all goes well, only then you start to use it on a regular basis.

Mrs Nice - That is a really good scheme. Where can I come and have a look at all the soaps in one place? Do you have a showroom?

Me - We do not have a showroom as such because we believe in stocking them individually and separately, this helps to keep their essence alive. But you can always visit the various places that we stock the soap at and then you are free to try and decide.

Mrs Nice - Great. I will call you when in Thane.

Me - See you soon!

So do you really talk so much to someone who tells you that they are in the soap business? Then why do people become so involved when it comes to animals? Why do people think they know everything about animals? Where is the humility you have while you talk about soaps to the soaps salesman? He knows better doesn't he?

So this entire thought process leads me to think that people are overly attached to their pets in most households. Then it is beyond my understanding why these animals are not treated well and kept in a bad way most of the time. Sometimes it looks like it is lack of compliance and to a great extent anthropomorphism. People love themselves and love the value that animals bring to their lives. They rarely understand the actual needs of an animal, they rather try to make the animal suit their own needs.
It was interesting to note that a lady who had a 4.5 year old Golden Retriever with clear anxiety issues refused to even accept he had behavioural issues and seek outside help. She had let go of international contracts for the sake of the dog and was very happy to tell the entire audience this. So is this a need to be recognized for the efforts put into raising a pet or is it simply thinking that you know what's best for the dog.