From a single van on Mumbai’s streets to an academy, an association and an entirely new standard of care — Petsburgh founder Andrea Cyrill Khurana on pet grooming, passion and what India’s animals truly deserve.

It was a late Monday afternoon. The kind where the week still feels fresh but the world has already begun to settle into its rhythm. I opened Google Meet, typed in the link, and waited. And then — there she was. Bright-eyed, warm, and genuinely comfortable in her own skin.

Andrea Cyrill Khurana. Founder of Petsburgh. Creator of India’s first mobile pet grooming van. The woman behind the country’s first internationally benchmarked grooming academy and the Professional Pet Groomers Association of India. If that sounds like a lot — it is. And yet, within minutes of meeting her on screen, what struck me most wasn’t the résumé. It was the laugh. Easy, generous, and arriving often.

She admitted she was a little anxious going in.

You’d never have guessed. What followed was one of the most open, alive conversations I’ve had in a long time — about gaps and grit, about dogs and destiny, about what it really means to love an animal in a country that’s only just beginning to understand how.

Rajeev Mokashi: Andrea, one van, one city, zero blueprint. What on earth made you think this was your problem to solve?

Andrea Khurana: Honestly, I didn’t. It fell into my lap. I had my own dog, he needed grooming, and in 2008 there was practically nothing in Mumbai — one groomer in Bandra, maybe one in town, and I lived in Andheri. In this city, that’s not a commute, that’s a commitment. I went looking for training in India and found nothing, so I flew to Sydney instead.

The van came from the same logic — if the groomers won’t come to the dog, the salon will. I came from an acting and modelling background so vanity vans weren’t foreign to me. I found a fabricator, sat with him, and designed the whole thing myself — with what I’ll generously call my limited mechanical engineering knowledge. I’m like a puzzle, and the universe kept drawing little lines. I just followed them.

The van was booked out within a month. What was that early response like?

People were completely intrigued. The van was super cute — a proper working salon inside. Tub, tables, dryer, generator, water tank, everything. We’d stop at petrol stations and people would reverse their cars just to write down the number from the back. Within a month you had to wait a week for an appointment. NDTV came calling not long after — we did a feature on Heavy Petting. It was the kind of moment where you think, okay, maybe we’re onto something.

Most people who love animals become pet parents. You became an industry. Where did that switch flip?

Shakespeare said it best — some people are born into greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them. Every time I needed something and went looking for it, it simply wasn’t there. So I thought, if I need this and nobody else is doing it, I’ll do it. I enjoy doing new things. I’m a Capricorn. It kind of just fell into place — but every step was because there was a gap and nobody else was stepping in.

(I’d already guessed the star sign.)

And the name Petsburgh — where did that come from?

My dad. Burgh means a city. Petsburgh was a city for pets — not just dogs but cats, birds, fish, hamsters, everyone. When I started, the website had trainers, walkers, even pet marriages listed. I eventually zeroed in on grooming because that’s what I could control and do brilliantly. But the name always carried the bigger dream.

You turned ‘washing the dog’ into a certified international career. How do you even begin selling that idea to a country that didn’t know it needed it?

By never stopping the conversation. My parallel passion has always been education. Grooming is not washing the dog — it is the first line of defence. A certified groomer spends more time examining your animal than anyone else in that dog’s life. More than the vet. More than the trainer. More than the pet parent who loves it most.

We see every square inch — lumps, bumps, ticks, infections, ear issues, matting. Things that get missed when the person doing the washing doesn’t know what they’re looking for. If your pet is genuinely your family, then who looks after them should actually know what they’re doing.

Tell me the one thing about building Petsburgh that nobody sees on the website.

That I wanted to do everything myself. I’m a Capricorn — letting go is not natural. The hardest thing was accepting I cannot groom every dog in this country. Building the academy meant trusting other hands with something I cared about deeply. What I discovered slowly was that teaching is its own kind of learning. Sharing knowledge doesn’t diminish it. It multiplies it.

You’ve trained a generation of groomers now reshaping the industry. What does that feel like?

Humbling. Genuinely. It’s pride, joy, and real happiness seeing the industry take the shape I always wanted it to have. I feel like it’s a return on investment — not just for me but for every dog in the country I could never personally reach. That’s the whole point of teaching. You multiply yourself.

You’re not just grooming dogs — you’re changing how a country thinks about animal care. Does that weight sit on you, or does it drive you?

Both. There are days I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Then I look around and ask — if I’m not doing it, who is? People say, who do you think you are? I say: nobody. You do it. But you won’t. So until you do, I will. I see a happy dog walking out of my salon and it makes me genuinely happy. It is, if you’ll let me say it, my calling.

India’s gone from ignoring its pets to pampering them. Cultural shift — or just better Instagram?

A little of both. Instagram brought the cute haircuts and the tiny shoes. But the real shift is quieter. I’ve seen families navigate genuine complexity out of genuine love — households where personal beliefs bend around the needs of a beloved animal, where people go out of their way to make sure their pets are properly cared for. That’s not Instagram. That’s a country learning, slowly and sincerely, what it means to truly care for something that depends on you.

First time at a grooming salon – what  does a pet parent look for in the first sixty seconds?

Smell. Walk in and if it’s off, walk back out. Hygiene announces itself before anything else does. After that, ask if the groomers are certified — because certification is the difference between knowledge and habit. And look for transparency. A salon with CCTV so you can watch what’s happening to your pet has nothing to hide. The only reason you’re asked to wait outside is because your dog loses its mind when you walk in — and nobody wants an overexcited Labrador near a pair of scissors.

Where does India’s pet grooming industry go from here — and honestly, is it keeping up with the animal?

Money is pouring in. Salons are opening everywhere. Wonderful — except you cannot open ten salons and then call me asking for groomers. The talent pipeline is not keeping pace with the ambition. We only start with one or two teeth. Getting to a full 32 takes time. But that doesn’t mean we stop chewing our food. My own expansion will lead with the academy before the salon. More cities need trained groomers far more than they need more grooming shops.

Eighteen years, one van, one academy, one association. What has a dog taught you that a person simply never could?

Loyalty. Transparency. Integrity. A dog tells you exactly how it feels — every single time. No agenda, no performance. They work on your energy and give you back what they get. If they want you, they’ll find you. If they don’t, they’ll tell you. Something we humans, I’m afraid, cannot honestly claim. I’ve spent eighteen years in the company of animals and the single greatest thing any of them has taught me is this — showing your love is never the wrong move.

It’s Petsburgh’s tagline: Show Your Love. And I mean it for every species, every relationship, every room you walk into. The world has enough noise. Lead with love. The rest sorts itself.

Rapid Fire – Zero seconds. Go.

Dogs or cats? Dogs.

The dog that changed everything for you. One word. Blip. My Golden Retriever.

Breed that secretly tests your patience? Chow Chows.  

Eyes, energy or tail — first thing you notice?  Energy.

One animal that is not a dog but deserves the same grooming revolution? Horses.

Badly-behaved dog or a badly-behaved owner — harder to fix? The owner. Always.

One word your groomers use to describe you on a hard day? Ma’am ko matt batana. (grinning)

Dog runs to you or dog ignores you — which tells you more? Runs to me. If there’s a dog at a party, I’ve already left the conversation.

Something that your dog has absolutely destroyed. Did you forgive it? My phone. My golden. Gone. Forgiven instantly. My daughter? Different story.

Eighteen years in. Do the dogs know you’re the boss, or do they just let you think that? They let me think that.

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