Remembering Crystal Rogers..Truley Inspiring

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Happy New Year to you,

 

Today on first day of 2008, I enclose some quotes & book info rmation about

Crystal Rogers who started India's Fi rst Animal Welfa re O rganization.

 

A Remarkable & truly inspirational story for year .

 

'I shut my eyes and see the lit tle girl I knew myself to be, eighty years

ago, racing bare foot down a stope after a bunch of colorful, fluttering

butterflies. Not to catch them. Not to break their wings. Not to preserve

them in a jar to show off to friends. I know now that the girl was chasing

after them to share their freedom.'

 

Words from the autobiography of Crystal Rogers, who dedicated her life to

the welfare of stray, uncared-for animals in India, and founded CUPA

(Compassion Unlimit ed Plus Action) in Bangalore . She was born in India in

1906, and spent her childhood here. Having moved back to England with her pa

r ents, she served as an ambulance driver and in a mobile canteen and library

during the Second World War.

 

After spending a few years in South Africa and Australia, Rogers returned to

Delhi from England in 1958 and was horrified by the barbarous methods by

which animals are slaughtered for consumption, the cruelty involved in the t

ransport of domestic animals, the distress and terror of animals kept in

captivity for medical research and the agony of sick and crippled animals

who are prodded on to work or abandoned because they no longer serve any

useful purpose.

 

Her deep sympathy for their plight resulted in her opening an animal

sheltercalled The

Animals' Friend in Mehrauli which she ran for twenty years. Soon, she also

started taking care of the homeless, diseased and dying people she found on

Delhi's streets. She then set up a charitable trust named Help in Suffe ring in

Jaipur. Roger moved to Bangalore in 1990 and founded Compassion Unlimited Plus

Action (CUPA), another animal welfare organization. She died on 30 August

1996.

 

To know more about her life and her fight for the cause, read her book 'Mad

Dogs and an Englishwoman', published by Penguin. An excellent simple and

moving read.

 

Some of the Quote taken from book:

 

'I shall not easily forget the day I was taken by a young man to vis it his

home. It took some time to get ther e since we were doing a bit of

sightseeing. When we arrived he asked me what I thought of New Delhi:

was itnot a fine c

ity and impr oved beyond all recognit ion since my childhood days?

 

I replied that it was indeed a fine city, but that I should have enjoyed itmo

re had it not made me so sad. Sad? My fr iend looked at me amazed.

 

'What saddened you?'

 

'Well, for one, the re was that terribly over-laden Tonga wit h the very

emaciated hor se which we passed when we were just starting,' I said, 'and

then that poor, thin pie dog wit h broken leg, limping along just in front

of the President's residence. Then there we re those wretched pe rforming

monkeys—not to forget the bear dancing outside the Impe rial Hotel.' I

stopped to take a breath. The visions were flashing past my eyes faster then

I could translate them into wor ds. 'Also the lame bullock pulling a cart on

the way to the Qutub Minar. And going up the hill, on the way to Ka rol Bagh,

that poor little mongoose tied to a string, languishing in the sun. The

buffalo working on the sugar cane mill, going around and round with it s

eyes bandaged. But worst of all, the ho rse. The one standing on the side of

the r oad, with the flock of c rows pecking at its back. The one with blood

st reaming from the sockets of its eyes: did you see it?

 

'Stop! Stop!' protested my Indian friend. 'I didn't notice any of these

things! I didn't see anything at all.'

 

He spoke the truth. He had not noticed. But then, no r had any of the

milling pedestr ians. Nor the ladies passing by in thei r chauffeur-d riven

car s.'

 

The Last page line of her Book:

 

'My pr ayer , now as I live out the evening of my life, is for all of human

ity to sha re the same goal: to gua rantee peace on ear th. Har mony between

man and man. And man and best.

 

One of these days soon I will r eunit e my dear f riend Jim, wit h my

family, my dogs, my cats, my goats and many other fr iends. They will ask me

how I lived my life on earth. I will answe r: I woke up w ith the song of

the bi rds. I car ed for c reatu res that could not speak. I fought wit h

those who did not defend the r ights of the defenseless. I tr ied to do the

best I could.

 

I believe that the spirit lives on. I will die but my dreams will continue.

They will find their voice through other people. They will find fulfillment

through action. '

 

 

 

Regards,

 

--

Nilesh Bhanage

+91 9820161114

www.pawsasia.org