Delhi goes to the polls, Paws First
Mohit Adlakha, a Gurgaon-based artist and illustrator, created this artwork for his “fat brother” Gola, aka Kebab, aka Rajpal Yadav, wishing him a happy life in heaven and hoping he would celebrate his win by eating some juicy kebabs up there. Sadar Market misses you.
Delhi has voted for MPs, MLAs and the odd RWA president, but in the last week of September the city queued up at cafés to choose its fattest dog. Fat Dogs of Delhi, an Instagram page run by a final-year Delhi University journalism student who keeps her name private, turned into a knockout poll on September 24, pitting 64 dogs with names like Kutta Singh, Dahi Bhalli and Mahakutteshwar against each other, several of them community dogs cared for by shopkeepers and residents. The response was enormous, as fans shared posters, memes and reels of their favourites and the page grew from about 1,500 followers to close to a lakh in a matter of days. By the final, nearly 94,000 votes had poured in, and really, who could stay away when the candidates were this cuddly? Safe to say, this was one unfur-gettable election.
Offline voting on September 30 ran from 2 pm to 7 pm at AKU’S in Vasant Vihar and Punjabi Bagh and FES Cafe and Desserts in Kamla Nagar, where young voters and elderly residents stood in line, supporters walked in with posters, and every vote dropped into a funky ballot box earned a sticker and a cup of tea or coffee. “There were so many contestants, Kutta Singh, Dahi Bhalli and lots more, but my vote went to Gola,” said Shambhavi, while fellow voter Shivam said, “So many people have come out for dogs, it is such a fun idea.” For a city that rarely agrees on anything, it felt like democracy at its friendliest.
A crown for the late Gola
The crown went to Gola, also known as Kebab and Rajpal Singh, a 75-kilo community dog from SDA Market in Hauz Khas, who took 66,952 votes and beat Googoo of Saket, a 46-kilo hopeful on a diet, by a pawsitively formidable 39,904, though she never saw the result, having died while the contest was still on. Vets have warned that extra kilos strain a dog’s joints and raise the risk of heart trouble, so the contest also got Delhi talking about the health of its street dogs, and the organiser plans to put the attention towards food, beds and collars for them.
