This teen author bats for stray dogs

Fourteen-year-old Anjali Venkatesh and her father were on their routine walk one morning, when they chanced upon a woman walking a Golden Retriever. Suddenly, a mongrel crept closer to them. “It was as if the dog was taunting the Goldie to either chase or ‘attack’ him but obviously it couldn’t, because it was on a leash. I found this very interesting, so I decided to do a comparison and trace the life of a street dog,” she says. 

That’s how Cleo, Confessions of a Street Dog was born. It tells the tale of how an Indian mongrel, adopted by a British woman who stayed back in India after Independence, gets thrown out onto the streets after the mistress’ death. How the dog that’s been pampered and not had to beg for food copes with living on the streets, forms the rest of the novella from the dog’s perspective. 

Anjali says she began writing when she was in Class 8, “My dad always used to give me writing prompts. He’s the one who usually pushes me to write.” She continues, “When the floods hit Chennai, we got quite a few days off from school so that’s when I began ideating and writing this story. I didn’t expect I would write it as a book; it was supposed to be only a short story. But it grew as I kept writing and it is what it is today!” 

Most children are terrified of dogs as kids because the fear of animals is ingrained in them. Anjali too faced a similar situation, but quickly got over it. “When I was a toddler I used to hate dogs but we eventually got a Dalmatian and named her Nila. My grandmother got her so we grew up alongside one another. She was my best friend,” she says. 

She eventually moved to the USA with her family, where she was until Class 1. She explains, “In America it’s uncommon to find a stray animal but I saw stray dogs everywhere in India. After we came back, we moved into an apartment that didn’t allow dogs so I began feeding the strays outside my building — we’ve street-adopted two of them, Simba and Nemo.” If there is one thing she could do to change the fate of strays in India, Anjali says she would begin by educating people. “I would spread the message that they are equal to exotic breeds; they also love their owners unconditionally. We have a couple of dogs where I study — in The School KFI — the kids run up to them and are really excited to play with these cute creatures so I wish more people become open to adopting them,” says the young author.