Absent Authorities

THE CHESHIRE CAT from Alice in Wonderland, whose grin stayed behind even after the cat had left or Macavity, the cat which just wasn't there (T.S. Eliot's 1939 poem, Macavity: The Mystery Cat). If you are not fond of cats, there is the dog which did not bark, from a Sherlock Holmes story.

- KIRAN KARNIK

These must have popped up in many minds on reading or hearing media reports of some recent incidents, amongst them the sad death of three youngsters in a basement in Delhi due to waterlogging on the street.

THERE, BUT APPARENTLY NOT

The intangible Cheshire-cat grin, the dog but no bark, are appropriate metaphors of officialdom in these events: there, but apparently not. The basement deaths in Delhi resulted in the police registering FIRs and promptly arresting several people (including the hapless driver of a car, whose "crime" was to drive on the flooded street on his way home!). Yet, one did not hear of any case against those responsible for the flooding on the street (of course, given Delhi's messy structures, this could be any one of the multiple agencies claiming authority-but apparently bearing no responsibility).