“If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me” I love this quote by W H Auden. I identify with it. I am unafraid of unforeseen consequences or lack of reciprocation; I go on with utmost fervour even if I find no love or favour in the path that I have chosen.  I am always excited to assist people and nature – with their challenges and that intent is irreplaceable, intense and unwavering. This resolve to solve was borne out of experiences of several years of sexual abuse that I experienced as a child. At the time of abuse, I made empathy my friend Jimme. The fact that there was a degree of comparison in pain, helped me empathise with animals facing a quiet death row, trees being uprooted, calves being denied milk and human depravity of all kinds. A deep sense of gratitude envelopes me when I tend to plant, people and other animals.

I have two children, one feline and one canine, and they are not ‘treated like animals’.  In fact, I wonder why people don’t get it –  When we say, “they were treated like animals” as the worst degree of comparison, many of us, are still oblivious to what really happens with animals. In these similes we forget the damage humans cause to animals and the planet as a whole. It is time for us to question ourselves, humankind. Humans are we, but how kind?

Given the serious demeanour of the causes I espouse, it could be assumed that I would be dead serious in nature. Quite the contrary, I am just a prank away. I joke so aimlessly sometimes that I land up in trouble, given my role as an activist and the image that it constructs in people’s minds. I think we live for the relationships we make with people. And though, my ships sail through rough waters at times, they reach the destination with joy.