CHENNAI: Thirteen-year-old Dhruv Anand was looking forward to an Xbox this Christmas. But when the flood hit Chennai, he decided that giving it up would be a small sacrifice to help out. “I saved up `12,000,” said the Bengaluru-based school student from Chennai. When his father, Anand Ramachandran told him he was travelling to Chennai last week to help with relief work, Dhruv told him to make a little extra room in his wallet.
And knowing his son, who loves walking their two dogs — Boo and Gerry, every evening, Anand decided to channel the funds toward the city’s flood affected animals. Given to the People for Cattle of India (PFCI) and the Blue Cross of India for rescues and rehabilitation, the donation has caused quite an emotional stir among the city’s animal loving community.
“I was so surprised,” the proud dad recalls. “Here I was thinking he was going to give me `1,000, and instead he give me every single note he had,” Anand smiles, getting a tad emotional. The word about this teen’s act of kindness has spread so much on social media, that strangers who heard about it now want to get Dhruv that Xbox he was so dearly looking forward to.
But the youngster who loves his collection of video games, including Halo and Fallout 4, almost as much as he loves his pets, says he doesn’t mind waiting another year to get it. And although classes at school take priority over everything else, Dhruv voices, “If my parents agreed and there was a chance for me to come to Chennai, I would really like to come and help out myself.”
As his rescued pomeranian, Gerry, stubbornly refuses to sit still for a picture, Dhruv looks over fondly and it’s evident where the focus of his relief work would be. But with two furry family members at home, we’re not sure his mother would let him ship home a few new playmates from Chennai.