75/ 100 Brick Dog
Why has my 100 Dogs Project stopped?
I’ve not written any new posts to my 100 Dogs of India project for quite some time for a good reason. The basic idea of the project was to write 100 stories, anecdotes and interesting vignettes about my three visits to this fascinating country. I aimed to push myself to write one story each day and it was important to me to strike a balance between stories that were interesting from a factual point of view, stories recounting things that happened to us that were usually amusing in some way and, inevitably, some stories about the not so palatable side of life in India.
This is post number 75 and I have been lagging behind somewhat simply because I found myself focusing too much on the negative. I never wanted this to be a project about how poor and dirty India can be, and how hard life seems to be there for the people (and dogs) I am photographing, but I do always find that as time marches on I forget the fun things and remember mostly the worst.
It has been ten months since we returned from the last trip around Delhi, Varanasi, Jaipur and Jodhpur and the little list of story ideas I have in the back of my diary that could form the final 25 posts now just seems overly negative. Nobody wants to read post after post about negative things – you can depress yourself at any time by switching on the news these days. For this reason, I stopped.
The thing is, I have definitely seen bad things in India. It is quite dirty and the impoverishment is obvious everywhere. It breaks my heart to see how some people and, of course the dogs, have to live. However, there is also a great amount of joy, vibrance and beauty there too and we go there to see everything India has to offer us. We do also go there to eat everything India has to offer us too…
Clearly it isn’t possible to help everyone but if we are in a position to lend a hand whilst travelling then we will. I have bought meals for people, pulled kite strings from the mouths of cows, unwrapped dog’s legs that were tangled in wire and overpaid at chai stalls so that crowds of children can have a biscuit and a drink. We always make a point of buying local and staying in small guesthouses run by people who have now become valued friends.
New Beginnings, New Dogs.
The 100 Dogs of India project is certainly not dead. Far from it. In just a few weeks, at the end of 2025, we are returning to India and its dogs. Not only are we going back but we will be visiting new cities–Mumbai, Kochi and Bengaluru–before heading up to our old stomping grounds Varanasi and Delhi again.
Mumbai is the most populous city in India and, I expect, will have plenty of dogs to photograph in various fascinating situations along with new stories of our travels. After Mumbai we travel to Kochi to hopefully catch some of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (a large arts festival) and to experience just a bit of life in Kerala. Do Keralan dogs look different to those in the cooler north? I shall investigate. Flying from Kochi to Varanasi we had to change aircraft in Bengaluru so we decided it would be a good opportunity visit somewhere completely different whilst we were there anyway and decided to stay a night.
So hang in there. At the start of 2026 I shall be returning home in January to the greyest and bleakest Scottish time of the year with my heart and soul fired up with Indian energy. Then, when I have recovered from whatever stomach upset I will inevitably have (it was giardiasis the last time) I will use the residual spiritual fire I have left inside me to complete the project on a more positive note.
Of course, a great reason for me to write these stories in the first place is so that they can become a travel diary to help me recall all the thoughts I had about a trip, good and bad, even after they have archived themselves in a dark and easily forgotten recess of my brain. To make the process easier there are a few things I will do differently on the next trip:
- Take notes. I always think I will remember stuff, then I forget.
- Try and make more photographs of dogs as they interact with people.
- Speak much more to people to find out how they live alongside the dogs.
- Avoid the giardia.
