How January leapt four-legged into cyberspace from the pages of Chennai’s social diary

The pandemic might have hobbled the metro’s annual dog show, but in the process it also gave it virtual legs to ‘traverse’ the globe

—The dog show by the Madras Canine Club cannot be unthreaded from the warp and woof — if you will forgive the pun — of the metro’s social life in January. Together with the Marghazhi music season and the book fair, it formed a trifecta of engagements that made January glint with pride as it sat beside its 11 cousins on Chennai’s social and cultural calendar. The Madras Canine Club’s dog show had a particularly wide-angled appeal, one that stretched beyond the show-dog fraternity to have even general dog lover eating out of its paws. It was a day out for the entire family — and often, just one lone dog lover in the family could succeed in the setting up a date for the entire family with canines. It was a photo op — in the age of selfie-friendly handphones, that amounts to a truckload of memories. Now, the question is: In these pandemic times, in every sphere, efforts have been made to keep the faithfuls engaged, virtually. How can you fit an entire dog show — with hundreds of canines with varied sizes, and thousands of spectators, dozens of judges — into a six-inch screen?

When Siddhartha Sudarsan and Jaisimha KB considered engaging with the regulars online, the thought of a virtual dog show did not even reach the utmost recesses of their mind.

Siddharatha, honorary secretary of Madras Canine Club, remarks that beyond the logistics, it would be a disaster on the plane of experience. Dogs are judged on a variety of factors, some of which — such as sociability and obedience — would come into play only in a pulsatingly alive, in-person environment. Besides, for the spectators, the real sensorial experience of watching a dog in action a few meters away cannot be replicated.