The Dogs OF WAR

In case you are wondering if I woke up rather late and decided to pen my impressions on the late Frederick Forsyth’s novel The Dogs of War, his hugely successful effort after his blockbuster tome Day of the Jackal, you would be gravely mistaken.

- SURESH SUBRAHMANYAN

Forsyth’s obsession with matters canine, even if only employed metaphorically as catchy book titles, put me in mind of the tremendous palaver currently ongoing in our own country about street dogs. I don’t consider myself a fit candidate to add to the feast of reason and flow of soul we are currently inundated with, or how we should or should not be treating our dumb chums. Far weightier minds than mine are daily voicing their opinions and concerns, tv news channels and social media have been full with film clips of Jimmy and Rani and their doggie friends roaming the streets of Delhi unchecked.

Even the Supreme Court has got into the act. Men and women have been running for cover while hungry creatures are, quite literally, demanding their pound of flesh. However, the fact that everybody who is anybody is holding forth on the subject is not about to deter me from putting my oar in, even if many of the 'shouters from the rooftops' are barking up the wrong tree.