Abhishek Joshi founded Dog with Blog in 2009 and has grown it into a 100,000-strong community that has helped place 900+ dogs and cats in homes across India. He writes evidence-based pet-care guides, runs verified foster and adoption listings, and tells the stories that move people to adopt.
His writing for Dog with Blog appears in The Book of Dog, an anthology alongside Ruskin Bond, Gulzar, Maneka Gandhi and chef Vikas Khanna.
I remember how I used to run after the cat, I still do but lately, the lead she has been amassing seems greater. The stars seem to suggest that perhaps I am looking in the wrong light, the answer isn’t in forgetting but celebrating the past that once was.
This is your life! Read More »
A lyrical odyssey of an angry ocean, The Life of Pi visits a familiar set piece; lead character marooned in open waters – Cast Away, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s travels among others albeit with an imagery never seen before and a story webbed with mysticism. Stranded in a boat, a boy and a tiger not only have to define their spaces but to co-exist.
Life of Pi Movie Review (2012): Ang Lee’s Visual Masterpiece & Spiritual Fable Read More »
And it’s winter again. Recollections of wild chase around the pine grove are as afresh as dew drops on rhododendron. The way our paws and whiskers bore smithers
Winter, our time of the year Read More »
Coming afresh from James Heriott’s ‘Vet in Harness’, I was taken straight to a tale which sometimes read like a fairy tale romance. Two strangers separated by maps, bound by graying years meet on an eventful evening and shape the course of their lives. Like an old world romance breathing to life, The Book of Joshua narrates the heartwarming tale of this couple(Tanya Mendonsa and Antonio E Costa) and their animal friends. The lyrical verse painted in earnestness would for sure appeal to dog lovers across geographies. An ode to the bond between (wo)man and canine, the vivid narrative takes the reader right through to the whisker periphery of the protagonist, cocker spaniel ‘Joshua’.
The Book of Joshua review Read More »
Driven by dollars and not ethics, from Enron scandal to Satyam corporate fiasco, integrity is the entity which businesses of our age take for a ride. At times I wonder how fair this whole game would be if we had canine in the cubicle and the board room. With the rare exception of great guru Dogbert, we don’t have a tainted past when it comes to greasing the corporate wheel.
A company run by canine Read More »
Calm as lakes that sleep, her gentle eyes have concealed more than I would ever know. Her calendar has more appointments than days, fine lines crisscrossed along the marginalia. Her eyes brave the storm of apathy that’s there in the world of humans and their hollow notions.
Calm as lakes that sleep Read More »
In a profession which makes him see death too close for comfort (searching cadaver at the bottom of the Naini lake) Hanuman strums all the right notes to the melody that life can be.
For whom the bell tolls… Read More »
There is this mad race of the world. And although the majority would tell you differently, often it is wisest not to participate in it. Pity, it takes an entire lifetime and yet the runners don’t know where the ribbon is and more importantly, why they are running?
In between the bright covers of ‘How Cheeka Became a Star and other Dog Stories’, the canvas on which these stories breathe is sometimes calm as convent and at others riveting as a raccoon. The heartwarming tales blended with remarkable artwork by Tina Rajan give a unique flavor to each story that you would savor long after reading them. An enceinte compendium of alluding narrations from celebrated artists from all walks of life, the book makes for a breezy read.
How Cheeka Became a Star and other Dog Stories – Book review Read More »
I know that many of us think of getting a pet dog, but are deterred by the responsibilities, the changes it will require us to make in our lives, space constraints and also because we genuinely do not want to neglect him or her, due to our hectic work schedules.
Those who found home: Happy B’day Elsa! Read More »
My world is monochrome. My dreams, colorless; retina, colorblind. The world is quiet here. Unlike humans, I see the world in dualities ─ the caressing touch, good; the stoning arm, bad. From neighborhood cats to screeching cars; coffee beans to cinnamon and Christmas to confetti, everything, devoid of color, but for black & white. But I don’t assign attribute to colors; my black is as graceful as my white. The day and the night, shining knights.
Sam Fuller’s masterpiece ‘White Dog’ isn’t a title that has had many viewers and yet those who have sat through two hour run of its sheer brilliance have had their color conscience seriously tested.
Let’s be colorblind ― White Dog movie review Read More »
I am a nameless Indian stray dog.
At the end of that sentence, I still wonder why anybody would be interested in my story or my plight; nevertheless I will go on like I generally do with my life. I scavenge my way around for a meal & look for a quiet corner to rest my scrawny body. It’s a dog’s life.
Sometimes, I wonder regarding the usage of the word dog in so many phrases, a dog’s life
I am a nameless Indian stray dog Read More »
Sometimes it’s not the tale but the art of telling it which makes it great. Au Hasard Balthazar, Robert Bresson’s pièce de résistance is an animal movie unlike any. Every ten years, Sight & Sound polls a wide international selection of film critics and directors on what they consider to be the ten greatest works of cinema ever made, the 2012 list has Au Hasard Balthazar at #16.
Movie review Au Hasard Balthazar – Life in an hour and a half! Read More »
In my growing up years, Chintu was my best friend. We would talk of the world, from chasing cats to getting rid of milk (usually on the flower pot when Maa wasn’t looking.) We were inseparable but then logic crept in. Chintu is a stuffed teddy bear and toys are for kids. I abandoned him to move on with my newly found mind. Yet despite all these years, engraved fresh in my memories, Chintu remains the emblem of my childhood. Ted is a funny…
Ted movie review: Not your average cuddly teddy bear! Read More »
Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night’s sleep…
Wake up Neo…errr…everyone! Read More »
“Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on.
I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer
I have been preoccupied in working on a series of poems that addresses the hitherto neglected segment of Canine literature. By this I mean, not literature about Canines, but literature by canines.
The best way to get a puppy is to beg for a baby brother—and they’ll settle for a puppy every time.
―Winston Pendleton
Why Kids with dogs are better off? Read More »
You will recall that I recently received the Nobel Prize for Peace for ‘significant contributions to the development of inter-species cooperation and harmony’. And why not? Are only human beings entitled to strive for peace amongst them? (If Barrack Obama can win one, so can canine!)
The dog wins Nobel prize! Read More »
Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find tomorrow on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday’s defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, If I had my life to live over again. Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
As United States warms up to 2012 presidential campaign, the media is abuzz with stories surrounding Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Earlier this year, quite a stir was caused by the Dog wars between presidential candidates. While Romney was in the eye of storm for putting his dog on the roof of the car during a 1983 family trip to Canada, Obama drew ire for having tried dog meat during his growing up years in Indonesia.
US Presidents Dogs – a brief history of the top dogs! Read More »
Searching for a mate is a complex activity for most dogs. As a resident canine advisor on marital problems, I see a vast spectrum of issues, many of which could have been avoided if the dogs in question had just taken the trouble to apply their minds before proceeding.
Musings on Mating: A scholarly article from Dr Chunnu Murthy BTech/MBA/PhD (Harvard) Read More »
“Instead of teaching tolerance and empathy towards animals, I have seen parents transfer their fear of animals to their children. So, when the adults are not around, and I’m walking Veeroo (my Red Setter), I encourage kids to come and make friends with him. On one such meet-and-greet occasion, one nine-year old girl asked me if I had got the “poison removed from the dog’s teeth”! I’ve never heard anything more bizarre and I’m sure the girl must have learnt this from her parents or adults around her! Sheesh
New York Times on Indian stray dogs: Crassly unfair Read More »
James Herriot was a Vet who wrote some fine books about his experiences dealing with animals. Many people assume that such books do not constitute serious literature. They are wrong. To be able to delve into the mind on an animal and weave entire stories is not easy at all. I myself occasionally fail to understand the peculiar behaviour of my colleague VM, but on the whole, he seems tolerable and
non-interfering, if slightly dull. I amuse myself by manipulating him every now and then and have a few laughs. But I digress.
All Creatures Great and Small: Book review Read More »
I don’t drink.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the most interesting people I have come across- family, friends or fictional characters, have had more alcohol concentration in their blood than hemoglobin. And I have had no problem whatsoever loving them. I am not judging them, after all what bad can alcohol do to people except for turning some of them into little agents of chaos─ verbal vertigo, vomit and violence:)
Why dogs don’t drink? Read More »
