One of the one percent in 13 million.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Sitting cross-legged on the raised sidewalk, she is busily fussing over a jumble of pans, jars and jugs. Four dogs are plopped down on the facing pathway, as still as statues.

It is early evening at the Tibetan Market in central Delhi’s Janpath. The traffic on the road behind the woman is growing dense. But she is totally engrossed into her job of the moment, her bare hands flitting from one pan to another, which are filled with some mushy soup-like stuff.

“Mix of boiled rice and boiled chicken,” she says, momentarily raising her head.

Feeding the four Janpath dogs is Poonam’s daily routine for eight years. Every evening, she drives from her home in Lakshmi Nagar, parks her car by the road, and walks to the pave, carrying the pans. A shop in the market once belonged to her family, and since then she has been familiar with the area, and with the area’s famous four—Kalu, Rambo, Bambi and Pogo.

The meal is ready. The diners stop playing statue, silently jumping on to the sidewalk.

“Our lives are full of stress,” Poonam explains on what motivates her to take out time from her busy life as a business woman to bring food to these animals. “But when I arrive here, and watch the dogs run towards me, I feel a sense of satisfaction.” There was a time when Poonam wouldn’t dare to go near a dog. “I was scared of dogs… slowly-slowly I learned to like them.” She was partly inspired by her sister, Deepali, who adores community animals. The conversation turns to the diners. “Kalu and Rambo are very naughty, Bambi can get moody at times. Pogo is a sweet seedha-sadha bachha.”

On occasions when Poonam is out of town, “a man called Tehseen takes care of their meals. He daily feeds about 200 dogs, from here to all the way to Gole Market.”

After piling up a handful of tiny chicken morsels on a plate, Poonam gets up, and walks a few steps ahead. On this new spot of the sidewalk, she starts to feed her other friends—-a bunch of crows.

[This is the 595th portrait of Mission Delhi project]