fire, fire everywhere and not a hose in sight

just as we were about to sit down to another episode of "dwiteeeeya" -- BigB in KBC, for those uninitiated in dinner-time middle class indian passtime -- the crackers went off. too close and too many to be an early harbinger of "diwali." and so we rushed out to the balcony to see a shed next door (the swanky Bangalore club) going up in noisy bright flashes. bombs, chatpatis, anaars, rockets, chakras, the works. over Rs 1 Lakh (over $2500) dissolved in brilliant colorful flames.

what a shame, what a waste and dreadfully dangerous. the rockets went up any which way, one even hitting our building under our neighbour's eave. almost a full 15 minutes after it began, once all the explosives were spent, a distant clang clang heralded the fire engine. and then another few minutes later, the ubiquitous indian whistle could be heard. but nothing could be salvaged -- it was all done by then. a couple pitiful hoses emptied themselves on the already dying fire as if to say, duty done.

in all this time, we tried calling 100 and 101 (police and fire) and i was told politely by a disembodied and pre-recorded Voice that the line was busy. good, great help.

another day went to sleep, once more underlying the woeful ineffectiveness of indian government and service authorities. stephen sacker's question to narayana murthy came to mind - when the chinese government plans something, it gets executed without fail. what to do have to say to the fact that the indian government is completely the opposite?

what can one say?