Namrata’s extraordinary buddy list

Namrata Rynjah documents street dogs in Nizamuddin East, ensuring their care and cohabitation with locals, while promoting vaccination and sterilization.

We may as well start with her mobile phone. A hospitality industry professional, Namrata Rynjah’s mobile is filled with photos of very many dogs. The photo album is named Nizz east buddies. “Nizz east” being Nizamuddin East, which is Namrata’s central Delhi neighbourhood; and the “buddies” in the album’s name refers to… well, Nizamuddin East’s street dogs!

The photo album is named Nizz east buddies. (Mayank Austen Soofi)

Namrata is like the Dr Salim Ali of dogs. The ornithologist catalogued the birds of India, Namrata has catalogued all the street dogs of her neighbourhood. Indeed, many dogs are living here, spread across residential blocks, community parks, including in the sleepy backside market. Since the “colony” is a bit upscale, these street dwellers are privileged with a bit more upscale existence than their cousins elsewhere in the city. With help from the local Resident Welfare Association, the dogs daily receive morning and evening meals of rice, veggies and chicken. A lady called Noor Jahan cooks the meals, served at designated feeding points by rickshaw puller Saleem.

This late morning, sitting in a teenie weenie café in her neighbourhood, Namrata says that she first compiled the list in 2020 to determine the number of dogs in “Nizz east,” and to help create an eco-system for the area’s humans to coexist peacefully with the dogs. While preparing the canine census, she “photo documented” each dog for the neighbourhood’s animal-caring volunteers to figure out how many strays needed vaccination and sterilisation.

Since then, Namrata has been updating the list every year, sharing it on WhatsApp with all the 28 volunteers. She circulated the most recent update this month. The densely detailed chronicle lists names of 60 dogs (Namrata named most of the dogs), including details on their colour, habits (the timid Dalmut has his tail forever between his legs), plus the vaccination and sterilisation status of each. The list’s bottommost section is the equivalent of a newspaper’s obituary section. Three dogs recently died: Dobby, the naughty one with big ears who would look guilty when asked if he had been a “good boy;” Phoolan Dev, who loved to curl up in a florist’s phool basket; and Foxy, the quiet lady, who would keep to herself. In fact, over the last five years, Nizamuddin East’s canine population has decreased almost by half, obviously owing to a thorough sterilisation exercise. Most dogs died of old age, per Namrata.

Otherwise, the neighbourhood’s tree-lined lanes continue to teem with the living. Lazy Kulfi is always seen snoozing under a fruit seller’s cart; Tikka enjoys a live-in relationship with a cat called Motu (both are cared for by Shameem, their human mother); and Ganna, who, at 13, is the area’s eldest dog.

Now, Namrata steps out into the market, and exchanges salam-namaste with two of her buddies—Grey and Ganna. See photo.