Dogs are part of our city life but we tend to ignore their importance until something happens to them. Like recently, the Corporation wanted to bump them off. It's probably part of the municipality beautification programme but I have doubts.

Most humans of Dhaka look quite ahem and dogs certainly look better. If anything they add to the looks of the city. It's a great sight to see a dog or a pack - they tend to be in packs- sitting on city lanes and roads as if they owned it. They probably do if you looked into their eyes.

I mean just think of the big thugs Dhaka is home to like those whom we all know and you will feel a certain fondness for them.

But the city gurus are newly-promoted urbanites who think a hick town like Dhaka deserves a "dogs at war" mindset but not dogs. It means all those fights, killings, rape, lootings etc are not that important but the very harmless dogs who survive on scraps are a threat.

Terrible roads, moshas, garbage not to mention water logging are no problem at all but dogs are. Why? Don't ask me. I am dumb.

However, the plan is not seen as feasible as it appears that dogs have a strange habit of appearing even after removal. Officials have admitted this to media so the grand dog plan has been put on rest for a while. The dog plan hasn't gone to the dogs. However, several areas have been targeted for making "dog free zones" which includes the areas around the Nagar Bhaban and Dhamandi.

Dogs and class

Knowing that several friends there do keep dogs at home, I was a bit worried so I contacted them who informed that the plan applied only to "Kuttas" and not "kukurs".

"The ones on the streets are kuttas, ours at home who regularly sip Johnny Runners are dogs."

So I kind of asked what the dogs of Gulshan 2 were called.

"Well, Bangla Academy has called an emergency meeting to discuss that. That Sanskrit word "sharmew" won't apply. The Ministry of Education may have to contact Harvard and Oxford for a proper name for Gulshan dogs. After all they cost more to maintain than an average official's salary. Minus the perks of course."

So there, the 40,000 dogs of Dhaka are now having a class war. Lots of "kutta/kukur bandhons" are planned.

Meanwhile, murals are up, songs made and rallies are on in this dogs at war , dogs in war and dogs of war as well.

How to raise bus fares without really trying

People with less money travel by bus, people with a little more travel by rickshaw, CNG and occasional Ubers etc. The ones with most of course move around in cars but that's another story. Now bus fares have been increased along with social distancing but the official corona crisis has been sort of informally declared over.

Why bus fares have to be brought down once they have gone up beats the brain. In the history of Bangladesh no bus fare when it goes up ever comes down. So naturally it hasn't. One is surprised that a section of media thinks this is wrong as no social distancing is maintained. That means 2 to a seat and 3 per seat. So buses are considered as health hazard. What the F*** does that mean?

In the shops, bazars, roads, office not to mention homes, no health precautions are being followed so why in buses? Some have complained that this is not private sector friendly decision so buses are being discriminated against. They are filled to the brim, bursting with virus and everyone is smiling. So...

Plus the bus owners have declared that they are playing a major role in trying to revive the hospital sector. People are also losing confidence in the virus and they are trying to restore the situation.

Good luck.

Now that Corona is over...

Well, not exactly but if one goes by the public scene and government decisions it's as good as gone. No restrictions and regulations, no social distancing whatever that means and so on. The only people still suffering are children and young adults who want to return to their schools, colleges etc. As expected they had enough of the virus called home with parents attached to it. There is only so much of people you can take.

The only people really missing the corona are media workers. They had much less work during the period and even less brain to juggle. For months it was paradise as they wrote the same caption and the same report day after day. Some were of course creative. Like more infections then yesterday, most infections in a week, more infections than last week....fantastic and creative.

People stopped reading them so people became media workers themselves and discovered Zoom which led to more media on social media than regular media. The result was that many outfits simply shut down making journalists redundant.

So now they are really badly off and have no option other than to turn to online shopping platforms , right when people have become tired of them too.

That's worth a decent headline.