Dog menace in Bangalore

I was reading this article from Deccan Herald about the Dog menace in Bangalore city and can't stop from recollecting an incident that took place about 3 years ago. Here is a piece from the article...

"He is your friendly neighbourhood dog. He rules the street. He will wag his tail when he is in a good mood but he can get nasty. Not to forget that he can be really rude to two-wheeler riders and pedestrians. And his bark is enough to send a chill down one’s spine Yet, one has to live with him, because he is as much a part of the street as others are and most of the times there is little one can do about it.With enough stray dogs around, can rabies and bites be far behind? According to the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, in 2003 alone there were a total of 62 deaths due to rabies in the State, while dog bite cases stood at 1,11,444." This is very true and the stats are pretty amazing - am sure the Bangaloreans would vouch for this!

Well coming back to the incident I was talking about - Bangalore streets are noted for dogs chasing the pedestrians and two wheelers. I have heard many of my colleagues say, "I am real scared to walk back home after 10pm" - well trust me - this is not to save themselves from Robbers (who are much more decent - they don't bark or bite) but from these stray dogs! I used to live in Thippasandra, a place close to Indira Nagar (a posh locality in Bangalore). It’s a common sight to see a pack (may vary from 8-15 - am not kidding) of stray dogs running around in fury. My friend had come over to visit me from Chennai and we went out to have some fruits. We were walking back home in Thippasandra road and it was not very late what with many shops still wide open. As we were happily walking by, there it was - the sight any of us would dread, the worst nightmare - we saw about 10 dogs running behind us! "Holy Wokomoli" I yelled to my friend..."Run for your life" and I started to run! Poor guy...he is bit on the heavier side and he was wearing a dhothi, adding to the discomfort to run. Not grasping the gravity of the situation ..he started late...but could quickly come to senses by watching me frantically sprint! My friend even suggested lets stop...I was like - "No way am stopping..." my idea was to climb the stairs in my house and shut the gate behind us. Pretty good thinking under the circumstances. Our sprinting was nowhere close to matching the dogs' dash! We could hear them scurry close to us…I seldom can remember what was going on in my mind at that instance - all I knew was am not gonna allow these stupid dogs to get me…still did not bother to turn back! As the barking and hounding got closer and closer, our heartbeats were racing faster and faster - and just as we thought we may succumb … we saw to our utter dismay one dog whizzing past us and the rest of the pack chasing that dog!!! We screeched to a sudden halt and realized what had just happened…it was a dog chase – but it was dogs chasing another dog! We looked around to see the shopkeepers who were watching this scene and enjoying. I turned around to seek some empathy from my friend – who had squeezed the banana in his hand and gave me one of the dirtiest looks I have ever received! Needless to say the consequences I had to face back at home was not pleasant and is not worth mentioning. That was one helluva chase we had!!!