This week for our Community wise edition, The Pioneer’s Tejal Sinha connects with singer Mohit Chauhan, who speaks to us about his initiative Animals are people too, in this exclusive chat.
People often term animals as ‘voiceless’. Renowned author Arundhati Roy, once very well said, “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” Without any doubt, this sums up how animals are treated on a regular basis.
But on the other hand, we do have people who treat animals as their own family, and Indian playback singer Mohit Chauhan is one amongst them. Not only does he treats his own pet ‘Ginger’, as a family member but also other rescued dogs.
Wait! Rescued dogs? Yes, his love for the unheard led him to begin an initiative called Animals are people too in March 2020. It wouldn’t be wrong if we say that just as his euphonious songs wins our heart, so is this initiative. Through this initiative, he along with his team have been taking care of many stray animals. “I’ve always felt close to the animal world, and nature,” enthused the Tum se Hi singer, who feels that these animals are always neglected and there’s no one to look after them.
Back then, during the first lockdown, while all of us were trying to make sure that we stay safe in our houses, the songster made sure to be there for the four-legged ones. “Near my house in Delhi, there was this beautiful forest ‘Jahanpanah city forest’, a 10-12kms long forest, with a pathway made for the joggers and walkers. But during the lockdown, people did not go to the forest. Now, these animals who were staying there, did not have any souce for food or water. That is when me and my family took a lot of vet food and water for them. Since there was a lockdown, we did take a special permission from the then DCP of South Delhi Mr Atul Thakur. He was really kind to allow us access to the forest and take care. of the animals over there.”
During this, Tum Ho singer realised that since they’d been working together seriously, why not form a professional team? And then came in Animals are people too. The initiative which started with over 100 dogs and other animals, has now become over 250 of them including cows and peacocks too. On a regular basis, they together carry over 200 kgs of vet food, dry and vet, along with 200 litres of water. Apart from this, they’ve to date done about 200 medical procedures, and over 70-80 surgeries. Adding to it, they’ve also made these tiny shelters in the forest for these animals to reside when required, during the rainy season.
Now, as we go ahead, here comes the sweetest revelation- He’s bought a flat to shelter the rescued dogs. Doesn’t that make you go ‘Awwww’ just like us? “After the medical procedures, whenever the doctor suggested us not to take them back to the forest, we used to take them to my house, till they’d got completely healed. Apart from my pet, you’ll always find over 16 rescues in the house. We take them on walks regularly. We have in fact assigned one of our personal vehicles which travels to the forest, and takes them to the vet. I had infact taken a flat where we have these dogs living there, they are a part of family,” gleefully shared the ‘Messiah’.
To date, the team have taken care of the expenses by themselves, the connoisseur urged people to come forward, and show some compassion towards these animals, and nature. The team had recently celebrated 3 years of love and ‘pawsitivity’. Though the journey hadn’t been an easy one for sure, but the Bheegi si Bhaagi si singer described it to be “beautiful and very soul-satisfying”.
“If I talk about myself it inspires me as an artist, as a musician. Because every true musician, every true soul in this world would want this world to be a better place. There are a lot of beautiful things that you can do where you can connect with and it’s really important for the soul and that’s where your art comes from. If there’s no soul in the song, it’s going to touch anyone in this world, and it’ll be wasted. There are a lot of musicians who are not focusing on the soul of the song and doing it just for the sake of doing it. They don’t sort of connect with the world or inner self. When you connect with your inner self, its always gonna tell you the right thing.”
Rescuing any animal sometimes can really be heartbreaking, and so was it for the Kun Faya Kun singer too. While once they were at the rescue, they came across a dog family, with two tiny pups. Unfortunately, having no food for days, one of the pups passed away. Something that was even more heartbreaking for us to listen was, “After a couple of day that we’d with complete respect buried the pup, the other pup also collapsed. My wife rushed him to a vet, who found out that his intestines were joined together (telescopic intestine). We had to get him operated but the chances were 50-50. But we had no option so got him operated and took him with us to our home. After around 25 days that he recovered, we thought of giving him for adoption. But unfortunately, no one turned up. But what happened was we fell in love with him and kept him with us.”
Now the tiny one is all grown up and they’ve named him Matru. Sharing one of the cutest moment with Matru, he shared, “So what happened was I was looking for this quite place to play my music, and tune my mandolin. Now, since he had comed from a forest, he was really scared every time someone entered his room. So what I had done was I dint look towards him and started playing my music. He just came and sat next to me and allowed me to pet him. He everyday would listen to 3-4 hours of my music and I would be composing my new song. He used to look at me with these cute compassionate eyes like as if hes saying oh you’re playing it for me, Thankyou and we named him Matru. There were also some rescues were maggots had eaten the ears or sides of these tiny pups, it was really heartbreaking to see them like that.”
He’s a strong believer of Seva, Sukoon and Compassion goes hand in hand. “People need to get in touch with nature and animals, and just not for the sake of it or for the social media. Seva is one of the strongest points and importance in every religion. It is through seva that you find sukoon. The seva that you do and the sukoon that you get with it and the blessings that you get with it, that takes you or makes you connect with your inner self. This goes with music too. It has message, sukoon, love, and memories. Music in a way is just like seva. Music, seva, and compassion really go hand in hand.”
The vocalist desires to make a big shelter home, a dedicated ambulance, and have a vet doc on wheel. “I would humbly request the government and authorities to change the animal cruelty law. The authorities and the police do a great job to catch hold of the people harming the animals but the law does not allow police or authority to give them a proper deterrent,” concluded the songster.
