Paras Tomar, the host of Heavy Petting on NDTV Good Times, has a light-hearted chat with Shana Maria Verghis about fraternising with Chinese speaking dogs, labrador and alsatians. Apparently bad tempered pomeranians are now on people’s ‘not wanted’ list!
He was shooting in Shimla to where he belongs, and was trekking as well. So it took a couple of days to get through to Paras Tomar. The new host of NDTV’s Heavy Petting joked, “Dogs are the colour purple in Shimla,” when asked if the pooches in his hometown are something special.
Adding, “But frankly, they have really been a nightmare to film.”
Over several episodes, Paras will travel to Tripura, Assam, Chandigarh and other places, to capture dogs and their families. Or maybe we should phrase that vice-versa, because the show appears to put the spotlight on the latter, as much as the former.
Tomar agreed, then explained that locations like “a beautiful apple orchard” where he shot, make very good visuals for television.
The ‘orchard’ family owns alsatians and labrador. While another affluent clan in Chandigarh that gets featured on the show, possess “eleven animals, including one Chinese speaking dog.”
Chinese speaking dogIJ “Chinese speaking dog,” he said, correcting the effects of a poor connection from Simla. Apparently the heat doesn’t only get to people, but phone lines! Though in retrospect, it was funny to imagine dog owners frantically signing up for language classes, yelling, “The Chinese are taking over the world. let’s educate our dogs in Mandarin! The Chinese speaking dog was a cute ball of fur. So were the rottweiler pup I met. It kept charging at me, but its just a baby,” recalled the TV host who also does RJ work for Indians in Vancouver.
And Paras raved on about the rottweiler like he had just tripped on acid. When he was sufficiently recovered, he informed that the pup was owned “by the titular King of Tripura,” who is “a big fan of our show.”
Apparently he had written in to Heavy Petting earlier, but they weren’t able to feature his brood. Tomar also got to interact with miniature doberman pinschers.
“I like animals,” commented Paras, like an afterthought.
If he didn’t, he had no right to be on the programme. Unless he was in it for free dog biscuits.
“It’s a change, after I’ve done so much Bollywood-related work. In the next series, I’m planning to work with larger animals, preferably the kinds that are huggable.”
He mentioned that he is not a human-hating-animal-loving bloke, as some pet fanciers tend to be, “provided they are huggable too!”
The show has a Pet Diary section and a pet consultant who fields queries relating to animal health and pet care. One family in Coimbatore apparently shared that they brush their dog’s teeth more often during summer because its breath tends to smell bad because of the heat.
Paras’ secret weapon for being a pooch magnet is “carrying lots of dog food in his pocket,” which apparently doesn’t turn his girl off — “she’s endearing in my arms!”
He signed off telling us, “I’m just a happy go lucky guy who would fly to the moon if I could — and I would take that Chinese speaking dog along!”