Pop-up Rat

Just about every city has rats -- New York, London and Bangalore are among them (I wrote an article on rat control in New York when I was at journalism school. It appeared in the Amsterdam News and was my first front-page story).

Recently, I was walking down M.G. Road. Like many sidewalks in Bangalore, the pavement consists of slabs of stone, some with cracks between them.

As I was stepping over one sizeable crack, a rat's head popped up between my feet, startling me and making me jump a little. Then he popped back into the crack.

I've had some not-so-nice encounters with rodents -- as a boy I surprised a snarling rat as big as a small cat along the New York water front -- but this one looked almost friendly and was cute in an odd way. He was just checking out the neighborhood.