LESSONS FROM WINTER

Entrepreneur and writer Shantanu Naidu adopted a dog in Europe and brought him to Mumbai. At a time when dogs and dog carers are under stress, Naidu's book on his pup is a reminder that pets are sentient beings, deserving care and love - for being an important part of everyday life rather than subordinated to human superiority.

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

HAVE you ever heard of a 'bad dog'? According to Shantanu Naidu, general manager at Tata Motors, bad dogs do not exist.

In fact, when he speaks of Winter - the golden retriever who has kept Naidu company since his college days at Cornell-he finds himself at a loss for words.

"A few million times during this story [in the book, Thinking of Winter (Penguin)] I will remind you, with sweet frustration, that I simply do not know what it was: genetics, soul, character, or maybe something beyond our limited understanding of the world. But I do not know what was wrong with Winter," Naidu writes in Thinking of Winter.

The "wrong," as readers later learn, is not a flaw at all but a rare and extraordinary sense of empathy, which is something seldom seen in a dog.

Over the years, Naidu says he has noticed a pattern. Whenever Winter comes across an animal in distress - be it a pigeon, a squirrel, or even a stray kitten - he instinctively springs into action. "He has this compulsive need to rescue," Naidu adds. "I have never seen that in another dog."

Winter's extraordinary empathy, including his uncanny ability to sense human emotions (of which Naidu mentions in the book), inspired the author to write about their special bond.

Another reason behind the book, he admits, was the realisation that dogs have heartbreakingly short lives. Although Winter will always live on in Naidu's heart and memories, the author points out, he also wanted him to be immortal in the world. Writing the book was a way of telling Winter's story so that others would know him too.

Journey with Winter begins