While most of us can escape indoors, crank up the AC, or order another iced macchiato to beat the summer heat, the city's stray dogs, cats, cows, crows, and pigeons do not have that luxury. This reality brings hundreds of Chennaiites to the Blue Cross of India campus every summer, where paint-stained hands and cement bowls become an unlikely response to one of the season's simplest but most essential needs.
A City-Sized Water Break
As part of the organization's Water Bowl Project, these volunteers spend weekends painting cement bowls that are distributed across Chennai and neighboring districts for animals to drink from. According to Velu TM, Manager Operations at BCI, IT professionals make up the largest group of volunteers, followed by students and animal lovers. "This year, school children have also joined in significant numbers," he shares.
Sana Ramakrishna, a psychology student and budding cricketer, explains her motivation: "People usually leave food near tea shops or restaurants for animals, but water is something that is often missing. That made me volunteer for this initiative."
We Have a Responsibility to Look Out for Our City's Co-inhabitants
For volunteer C Udayakumar, who joined Blue Cross earlier this year, painting bowls is about sharing the city with its most vulnerable residents. "I believe this world is not just meant for humans and belongs to every living creature equally. Because everything here is shared, we have a responsibility to look out for the co-inhabitants of our city," he states.
The first bowl he painted still sits outside his home. "Soon after, I started seeing stray cats, dogs, and even crows gathering around it to drink. Watching them quench their thirst was an incredibly emotional and moving moment for me. Seeing them find that relief gives you a completely different kind of fulfillment that words can't fully capture."
