Lokhandwala paints for stray dog killed by speedsters

Mumbai: “If love could have saved you, you could have lived forever. Save our strays. Drive responsibly.” This message has been painted on a wall at the mouth of the second lane in Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri. A large image of a brown dog with its tongue hanging sits in the centre of the mural.
Residents of the locality have created this touching tribute to a stray dog who was killed by a speeding car. Little Motti, a dear friend and honorary guard of little children in the area, lost his life on January 4. His death rallied the neighbourhood like few events have in the recent past.
Motti was a stray dog who had appointed himself to guard Sunny Side, Benzer, Sunswept and Twin Towers apartments by rotation. He would spend fixed hours in each building. Neighbours fed him, and Gita Paintal, wife of actor Paintal, who runs an NGO for animals, saw to it that he was bathed and vaccinated regularly. Her employee named Devraj who goes around Lokhandwala feeding strays from his big white bucket each night, would take Motti for his shots to the neighbourhood veterinarian.
The five-year-old relationship was bitterly truncated by the accident. Sunny Side resident Vinay Sahni says, “My watchman called me around 6.30am on January 4 to say Motti was lying still in the street. We ran down and found tyre marks on his body. He had been dead a few hours already. It was heartbreaking. I gathered him up and cremated him on the Back Road putting flowers and his favourite chewsticks on the tomb.”
Sahni says speed fiends are a common sight in the locality. “The site where Motti was killed is where cars turn into the second lane, so how can somebody drive so fast,” he wonders.
A few days later, people from Benzer and Twin Towers also came looking for Motti. That is when everybody realized how the docile, loving animal had touched so many lives. Each group had called him by a different name, including Motu, but they all recognized him from the pictures.
It was Isha Kothari who thought up the graffiti tribute. “We had thought of contributing to a charity or feeding other strays but this idea hit home,” says Sahni. Artists Aditi Deo and Chandar were invited from Pune and shown photographs of Motti taken over months.
The mural was created on Sunday, January 18. Once the artists drew the outline, the children of nearby buildings were called to fill in the colours. Raunaq, Ravjit and Ravnit Oberoi, Motti’s caretaker Devraj, Vrisha Muni, Isha Chheda, Kanchi Shetty and Prajakta Joshi Bhide worked eight hours to finish the painting. Passersby in the second lane stopped to ask what it was, and once they heard of the tragedy, they picked up the brush as well.
Taxi drivers who ply their trade in the second lane are also touched by the effort and guided TOI to each building where they thought the dog lived. Sahni says the plan is to decorate the length of the entire wall with social messages. “We have paid a high price with Motti’s death,” he says.