We were lucky to catch up with Kuhu Roy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kuhu thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Before establishing the Bridging Rainbows Foundation, a section 8 non-profit organization dedicated to rescued dog named Butter, in September 2023, my mother, Mrs. Hansa Roy and I recognized our love for the stray dogs roaming the streets of Baroda, Gujarat, India. Since 2005, we have worked to create change for the health and safety for strays and humans together in Baroda; the ultimate goal is to change how Indian society views the human-animal relationship through providing support, opportunity, and education. Through combing known locations where strays would live, trusting relationships were developed through active feeding, showing love and affection, and providing medical care. These acts of service resulted in hundred percent sterilization and rabies-free zones in high stray locations, all through individual efforts. Even after their sterilization, we looked after those dogs for their entire lifetime to ensure they were fed, provided with medical care to treat minor and major ailments and injuries under the guidance of private veterinary professionals, and comforted as they transition to the other world.
The work with the strays provided an appreciation and insight into animal behaviour and pack dynamics in close proximity. Each stray dog had a story of survival, hope, happiness, and challenge. All of the dogs, close to three thousand over the years, were named to honour their compelling heroic story and represent their unique characteristics and personality. Many of the strays found their way into my home; senior stray dogs, rescued dogs, dogs with special needs (blind, amputee dogs, hospice dogs, handicapped dogs), orphan pups, and road-hit victims. Caring for senior, hospice, and terminally ill adopted dogs also comes with an awareness that they would leave sooner than others. While with life comes death, it is difficult to mentally prepare for the frequency of loss in doing this work. As a natural corollary, in their passing there is profound grief which is as strongly felt as one would in the case of a human companion.
The past two decades have been a soul-rewarding journey. However, an attempt to give stray dogs a good quality of life came with unsurmountable challenges for me and my mother. This work is a high-stress and emotionally-charged journey.
When we faced resistance, social boycott, and public defamation for our selfless service, returning home to Butter, my first companion animal at home, brought peace and sanity. Butter’s presence was therapeutic, she understood the daily struggle without us having to utter a single word to her. Butter could sense the negativity we were surrounded with, especially when she stepped out daily for her walks. Butter, who had so much love to give, could not understand the looks of disdain and acts of malice from others. She also lost her canine friends on the streets to cruelty; a once overly friendly dog became skeptical of anyone coming our way. The experience modulated her perception of humans. She transformed to become a guard dog. She restricted her goodness only to our very close friends and family she knew would not harm her and me and my mother. Had it not been for Butter, we could not have survived an attempt of physical assault; the rescued became the rescuer. Butter was a rescued dog. She was one of three pups (the other two were named Scotch and Sundae) born to Maria for whom we cared for on the streets. It was for recuperation after a car accident that brought Butter home. She was special not because she was the first constant companion animal, but also because she was a pillar of strength and resilience for me and my mother. Butter looked after our emotional well being and was a part of our struggle through thick and thin. She stood rock solid with us, giving us the strength to sail through difficult situations and feelings. Butter, in the span of her lifetime, taught us how to divert our daily stress and grief to do more good, and engage in more compassion, which retrospectively, resulted in the foundation of the Bridging Rainbows initiative.
On the second of November, 2019, Butter died due to veterinary medical negligence. Butter, who had given us thirteen years and two months of her love and life had died in the most nightmarish manner. Her eventual death, unable to open her eyes after a surgery left us with feelings of guilt, anger, loneliness, frustration, a sense of disillusionment, and sheer hopelessness consumed us. Despite this loss, we continued to serve the stray dogs on the streets and the rescued dogs who were at home because of the special responsibility this bond and work engenders.
The tragic loss of Butter and the struggle thereafter to cope came with the realization that there was nothing in place for the grieving parents of companion animals, let alone a support group in India. Butter’s death had a new dimension added to it, to do something for others like us who had nowhere to go to seek help to navigate through the loss. The bond with Butter and other homed and un-homed animal companions is an emotional investment nurtured with mutual unconditional love and that cannot die with their death. There had to be a sacred place to celebrate the timeless human-animal bond.
To memorialize Butter, for her larger than life purpose, came into existence the Bridging Rainbows initiative, a first of its kind initiative from India for the grieving parents of companion animals. Bridging Rainbows was born on the fifteenth of August 2021, on what would have been Butter’s 15th birthday, as a felt need to celebrate the legacy of Butter, who taught us about living with compassion, no matter what.
But there was pin drop silence from all quarters in India. I had touched on a taboo topic, a disenfranchised grief, the one with no social validation. I began to wonder if I had dishonoured Butter. I wrote to several people hoping to receive some moral support, but there was no response from anywhere. It is then the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement (APLB) replied to my email and my grief and subsequent struggle got validation for the first time.
People in India were in disbelief because there was no concept of a support group for any sphere of life in India. Consistency is the key. I kept sharing my story of struggle with each loss I suffered, Butter’s death being the last nail in the coffin that had devastated me completely. I had some laugh at me, mock me, but a handful stood with me like a rock. Then came the first ever registration for the support group. Another barrier was broken as for the first time in India, support group meetings for companion animal loss began. That helped spread the word as from one to two, the support group meetings became a jam packed affair. That came to the attention of a leading national daily that covered this news, the legacy of Butter helping others bereaved in need. Being an active listener and having lost count of deaths suffered, I could relate to every bereaved I listened to. APLB instilled the confidence in me that I had everything, other than the mandatory training, required to be a pet loss grief specialist, I embarked on that journey and became the first certified pet loss grief specialist in India in December 2023. In the meantime, the legacy of Butter was featured in all the editions of a leading national daily that brought more power to the cause.
In late September, 2023, the Bridging Rainbows Foundation was born to honour the legacy of Butter and as an amalgamation of everything me and my mother have stood for in the past two decades in service of stray dogs.
Kuhu, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a clinical nutritionist by training. My love for animals is a feeling I have had since my earliest memories as a child. It is more about recognizing animals as sentient beings and treating them at par with our species. We all are born equal. I was raised in a household where compassion was a way of life. From my mother’s side, I was introduced to cats very early in my life and from my paternal side, I had learned from my grandfather to care for stray dogs. My father, no matter how tired he was after office, always had time to take me for a long walk wherein we fed cows and dogs, admired the trees and the clouds, which in turn helped me to learn the value of nature and its elements. I grew up feeding stray dogs, feeling their pain and suffering and that is when a need to do more was felt.
But the real turning point happened in 2004. Maa was comfortable leading a life as a geoscientist until Brownie, a stray mother dog, delivered a litter of pups on her office premises in 2004. She often found Brownie rummaging in the garbage. That is when she started to feed her. When her pups weaned off, they came under Maa’s care. Then, one day, someone removed them. Brownie had cried days for her pups. That broke Maa. Six months down the line, Brownie delivered yet again, this time four pups; Matalu, Chota Kaalu, Brown and Bada Brown. Though totally ignorant about the animal protection laws back then, Maa was adamant she would protect Brownie’s pups from harm. But what about Brownie? Would she continue to go through the cycle of physical, emotional and nutritional drain by delivering pups all her life? Could there be a way to ease her agony? That is when Maa asked herself ‘Can a stray dog be sterilized?’ She got on the internet and tried to research animal welfare organizations (AWOs) who could guide her regarding the same. An administrator of a local AWO told her that Brownie could be sterilized. It delighted Maa that there was a solution in place and that help was available, too.
Four months later, Brownie was taken for sterilization and Maa arranged to pay the AWO for their noble deed. Brownie returned hale and hearty post-surgery. Maa was at peace for Brownie. She would follow the same procedure for Brownie’s pups too when they would come of age. In the meantime, happy with the services of the AWO, Maa arranged a lump sum donation for the AWO by the company she worked for, for the sterilization of all the dogs on the campus. However, she had rejoiced too soon. Brownie delivered yet again. Maa was shocked and angry. She called up the administrator of the AWO and the response left her shell-shocked. They offered the money back that she had donated for Brownie’s surgery. There was no remorse from very those who were supposed to be sensitive to the plight of stray dogs. More shock followed when none of the stray dogs on the premises were sterilized. It was her first brush with reality that in order to ensure the sterilization of stray dogs, she would have to dirty her own hands and not take the AWOs for their word. That is the point from which she went about making the sterilization of stray dogs her mission. That is our story of stepping into an un-monitored system that fails the stray dogs and the people who care for them.
The Bridging Rainbows Foundation looks after the lifetime well being of three hundred stray dogs at this point, providing them with the same love and care that a pet deserves. We are on a mission striving for man-stray dog harmony. We provide with on the spot treatment of stray dogs and ensure their veterinary care. We tireless work to raise awareness about spay and neuter and push for transparency in the system to deliver results. We help broaden horizons of adoption by insisting that senior stray dogs and dogs with special needs are as deserving of a home. We created the Give Animals a Brake campaign to raise awareness about animal road hits in a bid to prevent them through awareness. We have empathy cards to be sent to the bereaved mourning the loss of their companion animals. We provide an umbrella of services to help navigate through companion animal loss that draws compassionate people from all around the world.
We are most proud of our integrity and honesty and the ability to get up every morning to serve the lesser children of God for whom the circumstances are as tough as they are for us.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
For two decades, we have been tending to the streets dogs, with the larger aim of man-stray dog harmony. We have made the Bridging Rainbows Foundation based on our experiences and lessons learned and with the broader idea that if we are not there tomorrow, what we have stood for, should always continue. Loyalty towards the cause has come at a great cost for us, wherein within the fraternity we are known for our honesty and integrity and that is what has helped build our reputation. For us, every dog matters.
Stray dogs are man’s best friend on the streets. Sharing their stories of zest for life, courage and resilience has helped people relate to the work that we do. They feel as though they have known those dogs since eternity. It is about bringing life to your writing along with the pictures to put forward the life of struggle the stray dogs lead. People gradually start resonating with those stories. Each and every stray dog has a story to tell and that is what we do, we celebrate their existence, those rare moments of respect and dignity we try to bring into their lives and the unconditional love they give us. Having lost thousands of priceless stray dogs over the past two decades, when we share their stories of loss, it helps validate the grief of so many out there who mourn silently because companion animal loss is a disenfranchised grief. It has helped create a sense of understanding that stray dogs deserve love and attention instead of being misunderstood and maligned. We do groundwork and that is what connects people to us and us to them. Then, providing a platform that allows people to feel safe when they feel vulnerable after losing a companion animal, makes them feel home and that is what we do. What started off as an endeavour to help the bereaved in India is now a global community that welcomes bereaved from world over. That is the power of connecting with others through emotions and compassion.
The Bridging Rainbows Foundation is known for lifetime commitment to the cause of stray dogs and rebuilding their position as an integral part of the community. It is also a place where people who care for animals, their emotions, grief of loss and love will be celebrated forever.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
There was a near death moment when our previous Company Secretary filed for Income Tax exemption under the wrong section. Far worse, he kept fooling us that the notification we received was a part of the procedure and that there was no problem. Admitting mistakes is not in the human nature, but misleading someone is the most awful thing to do. When his misdeeds were caught, we felt cheated and betrayed. We thought this would tarnish the honesty and integrity we have stood for in the past two decades, that too for no fault of ours. Fortunately, connecting with a new Company Secretary helped put things back in order. We lead such stressful lives that events like these are totally uncalled for. When one cannot do any good, one should not do any bad either, or atleast not mislead and breach trust.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bridgingrainbows.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgingrainbows/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/92595635/admin/dashboard/
- Twitter: https://x.com/BridgingRainbow?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4t2U3Qk8cCYF_ljToA73Eg
