6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
From a lifelong dog lover to a trainer
A home where dogs, cats, a goat, geese, chickens, and a bull can roam freely. A space where their existence is just as important as the humans who live there.
Sowbhagya Venkitesh, dancer, social media influencer, vlogger, and daughter of artist Thara Kalyan, who runs the Thara Kalyan Dance Academy in Thiruvananthapuram, lives in such a home. For any pet lover, her house is nothing short of a paradise.
A lifelong dog lover, Sowbhagya traces her love for dogs back to her childhood. 'I used to watch a lot of Japanese anime,' she recalls.
''Heidi', 'Girl of the Alps' was my favourite. The girl in that show lived with her grandparents, and so did I, since my parents were working. So I connect with the movie so much. She had a St. Bernard called Josef, and ever since then, I wanted a dog like that,' Soubhagya says. However, her parents made her wait until she was old enough to care for one.
'In Plus Two, they finally got me a dog. I wanted a big breed like a German Shepherd or a Rottweiler, but my mom said no and brought home a pug instead. And that pug became my first pet.'
Today, her home includes six dogs — a Dogo Argentino, two Cane Corsos, a Golden Retriever, a Shih Tzu, an Indie dog, and that same first pug, now 17 years old. But it was only after marrying Arjun Somasekhar, a dancer, actor, and an even bigger animal lover, that her connection with other animals began to grow.
'I can't explain the bond I have with them. It's a kind of mad love. People often ask me why I get so upset when something happens to one of them. For us, they are everything. We plan our vacations, our house choices, even our daily routines around them. They are part of every decision,' Sowbhagya explains.
