S#PEOpleStories Shvaan – The Dog Food Story with Kedar Dixit
I wanted to start this story with a very popular line from a web series but it will be too much of a cliche so I am going to let go of that thought as of now.
While most of us have been struggling to learn and/or perfect our culinary skills for fellow humans especially in this lockdown era, some of us have managed to leap over the fence and make something yummy and nutritious for our 4-legged planet co-inhabitants.
A few days ago, I had the chance to speak to a gentleman named Kedar Dixit. Now here is a man who is a mechanical engineer with extensive work experience in his field of IT and has worked with reputed IT companies in India, USA and Europe. And I wondered what is he doing with dog food and the name Shvaan?
Shvaan is the Sanskrit word for Dog. Just a quick memory jog – the first time I heard this word, I thought my cousin was mispronouncing the word Swan so I laughed, only to be rewarded with a swift smack on the head.
Back to Kedar and while he was narrating his life story, I began to get curious as to what led him to make food for our dog friends. Kedar was driving his life-wagon along the highway of life, passing the usual milestones of job, marriage, kids etc. and of course addiction to food, finally landing on PEO. After he moved back to Pune, the family decided to add a lovely dog to the family and naturally, commercially established branded dog foods became a part of the pet’s life. This commercial food came with its own bad effects and his dog started showing problems like skin infections, weight gain etc..
That was the moment Kedar knew he had to do something about it. Diet is the main factor in weight management (esp when I look at myself ) and the problem lies in that cruel four-letter word Diet. Necessity is the mother of invention and that is where Kedar found his calling. He decided to work on dog food that would be loved by dogs and most importantly, be highly nutritious. He sought information from a world-famous vet about dog nutrition over the Internet and started experimenting, all on his own. He set up a small unit in his own apartment balcony and started making dog food in small batches but with local ingredients only on weekends, balancing his IT job schedule. He finally came up with a basic food formula for his dog and the results were very promising.
His dog’s health improved – weight gain is the main problem in labradors but his dog started showing healthy weight loss, better skin and coat texture and a happy glow overall. His friends saw the results and pleaded with him to make some extra food for their dogs too. The other dogs showed very positive results too and like fire spreading in the wind, word of mouth publicity took over and Kedar soon started becoming a popular name among the pet owners’ community. Finally, his calling bore fruit and instead of dragging himself to office, he resigned from his IT job and went full-fledged into his dog food business, giving it a perfect name Shvaan. His entire family supported him in his life-changing decision whole-heartedly which was a major push for Kedar in jumping over the fence towards his inner voice.
They say “Gharcha Jevan (home cooked food)” is always a healthier choice and with Shvaan, this holds true for our lovely dogs too. Why should they bear the ill-effects of “junk food” like us? Kedar now has a huge and a very delighted customer base with absolutely no complaints till now (*touch wood) and I know it shall remain so for a long long time.
If you are a dog-owner or dog lover, you must contact Kedar for some amazing home-made dog food which will make your dog a lot happier. I am genuinely happy to present his story on PEO. Going back to the popular web series line I mentioned at the beginning, I can’t resist but say it – If a man loves dog, he is a good man….(and you know the rest)…. And this man makes healthy food for dogs, so he definitely must be a very good man.
https://puneorders.in/peo/shvaandogfood/
PEOple Story by Amit Dharwadkar
