AWAKENING THE SENSES
New Delhi, India
Imagine awakening your senses…
Seeing sights you’ve never seen. Smelling scents that sear your nostrils. Tasting a rich and spicy cuisine. Being touched by children who have nothing. Hearing sounds that never cease – car horns, bicycle horns, prayer chants.
This is New Delhi. This is India. Awakening the Senses!
My first time. My first experience.
Street dogs
Street dogs are everywhere. Yet they remain remarkably inconspicuous.
Outside my hotel window I watch one, then two, then three appear beside the garbage collectors who painstakingly sort out the garbage – what is truly garbage and what can be reused. The dogs watch and wait. When anything falls to the dusty street, the dogs investigate. In turn. They don’t fight. They just wait.
When they have fed they sleep. Many look quite well fed. Others look less fortunate. Puppies live under the broken concrete pavements.
Street children
The children wait too. They ask you for money to feed their baby brother or sister. Sometimes they carry that baby with them. They follow you block after block begging. They wait outside your hotel until you next come out.
Some children are tourists, like us, visiting the cultural monuments with their families. They ask you to take their picture. Their joy comes from looking at themselves on a camera.
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Street traffic
A ride on a rickshaw (tuk tuk) turns out to be one of the most dangerous rides of my life (think dodgem cars meets roller coaster!) but also one of the most exhilarating. Traffic is chaotic. The main rule seems to be: Do not stop. Do not give way. Go, go , go! Even if it’s the wrong way up a major highway. You can either decide to close your eyes or to keep them open and immerse your self and your senses in the experiences.
I chose to keep my eyes open which in retrospect was the wrong choice. Today my eyes are swollen from the dust. Not a good look!
The experience of the traffic and the hoards of people will stay with me. 
Views from a rickshaw…
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There are heaps of dogs that wander the streets in Athens, but most of them aren’t street dogs, but owned by people that let them out to wander. Most are pretty car smart though, they wait until someone presses the button to cross the street and follow along.
I live in the Nambucca Valley on the mid north coast of NSW and we have plenty of camp dogs around up here particularly in a couple of areas of the valley. They are not desexed and are mostly bully type dogs who just wander the street mating willy nilly. It not uncommon to be driving around Bowraville and see two tied dogs on the road. The local animal control officer is really powerless to do much about them. I see a number of people who from time to time pick up these dogs and attempt to rescue them- for better or for worse and they end up with me for training, which is a challenge.
In Bali there are heaps of street dogs. When i was over there i had a pet one called Rover. She was passed onto different Australian families at our hotel. So nearly always had a family when her current ones were leaving. Im pretty sure she has passed on now tho. Friends that go over there 3-4 times a year said they havent seen her and she is normally always at the beach just waiting for one of her families to rock up in the afternoon.
A few of the vet teachers at my tafe go to india and do desexing at the end of the year and do fund raising through the year for it.
So sad.
i have got 2 from haNDS of cruel torture they were left behind in a unit just5 left to starve lucky a local got them out and they had trost issues now they are both safe and are finally loved
I am enjoying all your comments and stories so much. Seeing these animals stirs such powerful emotions. I am actually surprised at how accepting people here are of these animals. Within institutes, within temple grounds – I have yet to see them be moved on by people. Not that their life is easy – far from it.