Karnataka - Bangalore   

Reporter's Diary

SOME SAY the Union and the State budgets have been exercises in masking the fine print in populist language. So businesses have learnt from long experience to wait until the dust settles before passing the benefits on to customers.

Some customers though, do not seem to notice, especially the kind used to spending upwards of Rs. 500 on a movie any given evening.

For instance, there are those who will not think twice before spending Rs. 100 on a balcony seat to watch blockbuster movies.

The rest of the money will of course go on pop corn, pizza for those who have missed dinner, and of course colas.

Coming back to passing on benefits to customers, some clever cinema owners seemed to have been prescient about cut in entertainment taxes announced by the Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, in his budget.

So some time ago, they went ahead and increased the price of a ticket to almost multiplex levels — a sign of things to come.

DID YOU know that our policemen have some "dogged" friends in the city?

Not humans, the "friends" in this case, are the four-legged creatures found outside most police stations in the city.

Take the example of the Frazer Town (Pulikeshinagar) Police Station.

Four dogs have adopted the place.

One of them is especially striking as it has only three legs. Many a time, curious passers-by have seen this canine sleeping peacefully on the middle of the road leading to the station, while the constables go about their work.

None of them ever disturbs the dog.

Even the Commercial Street Police Station has its share of "in-house" dogs. And the State Intelligence office on Infantry Road has a smart watchdog.

This one wears a studded collar and can be often seen sitting majestically just inside the gate.

He acts as an unofficial screening device and often races out to bark at unwary stray dogs which happen to venture near his territory. And when beat policemen pass by, he wags his tail.

All these dogs are strays. But they are no less dogged in their devotion to their adopted masters.

By Harichandan A.A. and Divya Sreedharan

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