apart from listening to scripts over video calls and spending time with his family arav has also been busy feeding strays in his neighbourhood during the lockdown a short video that he shared on his social media urging others to provide strays with food and water went viral in no time feeling inspired several others started feeding strays in their neighbourhood too and now arav has built a huge community of people who are helping stray dogsright from when the pandemic hit us last year i have been feeding strays on and off but i wasnt too focused on it then whenever i stepped out to buy essentials or went to the atm i found homeless people not wearing masks so i started buying them masks and educated them about coronavirus i also started giving them food since i was doing this regularly a lot of strays used to crowd around my car for food over time i realised that there were several ngos and volunteers who were feeding homeless people but the dogs and cats were left alone to fend for themselves thats when the idea of feeding strays struck methe actor says that he casually put up the video last month and it got a lot of love initially i used to feed them just dog biscuits later i started giving them homecooked food like curd rice broth and meat bones among other things he says adding with the video going viral several people came forward to help strays in their neighbourhood almost 6070 people said they started doing this after seeing the dogs starve they tagged me in their posts and i started sharing their pictures and videos to encourage them i get these messages not just from people in chennai but also from several other places like hosur vellore trichy and so on interestingly a couple of them have been feeding strays for many years i want them to take the spotlight which is why i share their work too now people are donating money and food to feed straysarav says that a lot of awareness is also being done to ensure volunteers give the right food he adds things like chocolates or nuts shouldnt be given they are in fact dangerous for dogs so whenever people ask me about the food to feed them i tell them all this as wellthis initiative has also garnered the attention of a pet food supply the brand has offered to contribute to the food anybody willing to feed strays regularly can ping me and i will direct them to the chain for food supply says the actorarav also has plans to set up food dispensers around chennai we are trying to tie up with a couple of ngos and set up food dispensers and water bowls in and around the city i know many people who have kept food bowls right outside their apartments but it would help a great deal if we do this in a proper