Advertisement
Dream Heven Hotel rooftop view.
The view from my hotel in Udaipur. Udaipur. Half a million people. Hills as backdrop. Three small lakes. I'm at the Dream Heaven Guest House overlooking two of the lakes. It's dry season, so the lake levels are down leaving dry areas, but still to see the water from my room or the rooftop balcony is a pleasure in this dry land. Across the lake from me are a couple of ghats where people come to bathe, pray, do laundry, etc. One of the things that happens on Gangaur Ghat is part of the Mewar Festival. This involves the god Shiva and his wife Parvati. Women dress in their finest saris and come to the ghat carrying images of the god and goddess, also dressed in finery. The married women pray for good health, wealth and longevity for their husbands and the unmarried women pray for a good husband. Some, perhaps, just pray for a husband, period. Many of the girls are pretty and all in the best saris, it's like being in a dense garden of randomly-planted flowers. The hues are extraordinary, although red, pink scarlet and orange predominate as these are the colours often used here in Rajasthan.
Met a few people on the rooftop
Mewar Festival, Udaipur.
Mewar Festival ladies in scarlet saris carrying representations of the goddess Parvati. Scarlet is one of the main colours of dress in Rajasthan. Parvati is Shiva's wife. here. One - Mija from Sweden - volunteers at an animal hospital in a farming community on the edge of town. Run by American Jim Myers and his partner, Erika and their daughter Claire, it's staffed by a dozen paid Indian workers including veterinarians and as many volunteers as they can get. I went out there early one morning along with Ray from New Zealand. He and Mija rode bicycles and I followed on my motorcycle.
Many dogs there, but also donkeys, cows, birds and a cat. Some have been hit by cars, others are sick. All need care. The crippled dogs, paralyzed in their hindquarters, are an amazing sight. The drag themselves around by their front legs and have developed very strong shoulders. Rather than being pathetic in their attitude, or defensive, they come to you eagerly seeking affection. They've lost nothing of their "dogness". We spent the day petting puppies, walking once sick but now almost healthy dogs, giving crippled dogs affection by holding, petting or brushing them and helped to feed them at the end. The donkeys and the cat got some attention from us, too.
There were other animals as well, some of less affectionate temper, and these needed professional care, not that of untrained volunteers.
Dog karma
According to Jim, Indians simply don't give a damn about these creatures. Service animals such as donkeys are to be used until they're useless. Dogs are simply a nuisance. He says we shouldn't behave this way and that we should treat them with greater decency. He started the hospital to help them and tries to change the Indian attitude through education. In a purely ethical context, he's right. We should not mistreat other beings that share the planet with us. It's within the cultural context that he creates an interesting philosophical issue, maybe even a dilemma. I suppose from an Indian or Buddhist point of view if you're born a dog that's you're karma and if you get hit by a car or fall sick that's just bad karma for dogs. Nothing to do about it. Jim interferes with this, to a certain degree, by looking after the animals, although this could also be seen as good karma following from a round of bad karma and therefore simply part of your overall dog fate.
Looking after the animals is not the issue. What is problematic to a certain degree is his effort to change the Indian mentality. Here, we encounter the same kind of attitude that sends missionaries to Africa: a presumption of superiority armed with a mission to change a people and make the world "better" by "improving" them. The practical aspects of his work - eradication of rabies and significant reduction of stray dogs in Udaipur through sterilization - are postive and not in dispute. The cultural aspects are another thing as he gets tries to influence local decision makers and thus gets caught up in local political issues.
What to do?
So how should he go about it? Should he just help the animals without proselytizing? Just by itself that would already be a good thing. Should he try to change the Indian mentality? A change in the direction he wants would lead to fewer unhappy animals, also a good thing. Or should he simply lead by example and let those who will, follow? Less effective, but also less intrusive culturally.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0273s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb