dawgs

it’s been a little over a month since we moved into this flat, and we are currently experiencing our first power outage. it began last night around 1am, and at 3 in the afternoon, we’re still hoping for its return in the near future.

i know, i know, “welcome to india,” you’re thinking. i guess since it hadn’t happened at all in the last month, i was hoping that we’d be smooth sailin’. i should’ve known better; just the other day there was an article in the paper about how while bangalore has been virtually free of power outages for the last two years, that’s about to change. nice timing. and just today the times is reporting that there has been a 25% rise in power demand this year compared with the last three years, and that the demand is likely to go up further in april and may.

in other news, the biggest story here is the death of a four year old boy who was attacked by stray dogs while playing hide-and-seek. this comes on the heels of another death of an eight year old who was attacked just two months ago, and many other reports of children who have been bitten but not killed. protests ensued and now there is increasing tension between government officials who want to kill all stray dogs, and NGOs that want to protect the rights of animals. one government official is quoted today as saying, “children’s lives are more precious than dogs’. we’ll intensify the culling and killing operations without any mercy.” a little extreme, maybe? maybe not? seems to me the bigger issue is that of trash collection. many of these dogs gather to rummage through garbage that is strewn on the side of the road or in the middle of a field, like the one where little manjunath was playing.

there are over 56,000 stray dogs in bangalore!