Mother-daughter duo helps people cope with depression due to loss of pets

Vadodara: Animal-loving mother-daughter duo from Banyan City has started ‘Bridging Rainbows’ a new initiative to unite animal lovers and owners suffering from loss of their pets across the country.

Under the initiative, Hansa Roy, a retired geologist, and her daughter Dr Kuhu Roy intend to normalize the conversation around mental health and emotional well-being and how to cope with the loss of their pet animals.

“People have deep bond with animals living with them or feeding or caring for them. So, when the animal dies, it is the same as losing a human member of the family,” explained Roy, adding that she and her daughter started the initiative after going through similar grief at the loss of their first dog Butter around 15 years ago.

“Fifteen years later too, I still cry sometimes remembering Butter,” Roy told TOI.

“In foreign countries, it is very normal to talk of mental health in context of animals, unlike in our country where mental health itself is a taboo subject. So, bringing in the context of animals would be ridiculous for many,” said Kuhu, who too went through a lot of struggles after Butter’s death.

Currently, under the initiative they have been putting out writings of people trying to deal with the loss of their animals on the website.

“When people suffering from grief read these writings, they too can relate and open about what they feel and thus there can be a chain,” Kuhu said. She added that in future they plan to start a support group where people come together virtually or in person to talk about their mental health and grief. “There is a tremendous scope to learn because we do not have bereavement counselling in India,” she said.


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