Every monsoon season shows us that the city desperately needs to modernise its ancient drainage system. Every terrorist act shows us it is purely because of the resilient spirit of ordinary citizens that the city picks itself up to face the next disaster and the next.

Municipal governance simply disappears. Not just in times of crisis but even in peace time, so every public building in the city, whether it is the courts, the railway stations or the Municipal Commissioner’s magnificent office, is in a dismal state of disrepair.

Many of these are fine, old Raj buildings and their neglect amounts to criminal vandalism. Instead of spending money on restoring these heritage buildings the municipality spent more than Rs 130 crore “beautifying” Marine Drive.

As someone who walks down it daily, let me say that it looks just like it did before and with its new paving stones already sullied by paan spittle, it’s hard to see the point of the very expensive makeover.

The day after my run-in with the dog shit squad the former senator from Nebraska, Bob Kerry, passed through Mumbai and was interviewed in a Mumbai newspaper.

Asked what he thought of the city he said, “What struck me the most was the weakness of the city government versus the state government. New York city, to which Mumbai bears a close resemblance, has a very strong mayor. A mayor with more powers would solve a lot of problems faced by the city.” I could not have put it better myself.