This astrologer is making sure strays have a yummy future

Nagpur: Whenever you go grocery shopping, don’t be surprised to see strays feasting on chicken biryani on the streets.
In these times of ‘restrictions’, when even some sections of humanity is struggling to get one square meal, city’s Ranjeet Nath, fondly known as Ranjeet Dada, has been providing scrumptious chicken biryani to around 150 strays.
The 58-year-old astrologer has been cooking nearly 35kg biryani daily since the onset of the pandemic.
“He has been doing this even before the lockdown but his work grew manifold since the pandemic started,” says Rahul Motwani, who has been associated with Ranjeet.

Such is his fondness for stray dogs that he calls them his “bacche” (kids). “I don’t like to call them dogs or stays. I consider all of them as my kids,” says Ranjeet.
His day starts with preparations for the biryani. He starts cooking it from noon and goes around the city on his bike at 5pm daily to feed the strays.

“I have 10-12 fixed locations and my ‘bacche’ know them. The moment they see me, they start running towards me,” says Ranjeet, who returns home around midnight after the entire vessel full of biryani is empty.

He does it seven days a week. “Once on the streets, I do not discriminate against strays. I also feed cats but since the biryani has meat, I do not offer it to cows,” he says.

There is less meat and more bones in the chicken biryani. “I get the bony part of the chicken at a cheaper rate which helps me to feed more dogs. Until last month, most of the expenditure was from my pocket,” he says.

Since the last few days, Ranjeet has been getting donations from those ‘who don’t have enough time to feed strays’. “A video featuring Ranjeet’s kind gesture was uploaded by a food blogger after which donations started pouring in,” says Motwani.

Ranjeet has the full support of his family. Initially, some neighbours did object to the biryani making but he convinced them by saying that it’s for a noble cause. “I live in a small house and cook the biryani in the veranda. The smell of the biryani irritates some neighbours, but when I tell them the reason, they oblige,” he signs off.