Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

Between the blocks of the New Hostel Complex in the Indian Institute of Science there is a fountain. Well, once there was a fountain, now it is a capacitor for many things. Intentionally built to hold back rain water and to release it slowly into the drainage system, it also collects pillows, trash in general, mud, leaves and depending on the water level also cats and dogs. Not to mention that it is a perfect breeding ground for all kind of mosquitoes with a unique flora and fauna.

The rainwater capacitor between the blocks of the New Hostel Complex

One day just before an exam, I did not sleep that well. At around 3AM in the night I heard a loud splash and the usually calm water of the rain water capacitor got disturbed. A dog jumped into the capacitor and swam happily around. Well, its happiness vanished at that point in time, when it realized, that a height of 1.5m from the water surface to the upper edge is a little bit too high to jump. Especially out of the 80cm deep water and when it could not touch the floor. So it started to scratch the walls whimpering. How to get it out without getting bitten (it was a stray dog)? The security boy said it is too early and I should let it swim (and eventually drown). The thing is that a dead body is always harder to get out than a swimming one, since you have to go to the corpse through the smelly water, while a living being is able to move to a better position.

Actually the water was so smelly that nobody volunteered to take a dip. So we organized a rope and a big bag from the junk in the hostel basement. We lower the bag to see, what happens. Surprisingly the dog was quite smart. It swam to the bag, turned it and pushed it under the water. Then it went into the bag and stopped doing anything. We lifted the bag and its 200 liters of water slowly out of the capacitor. Fortunately the bag was so old that it had lots of holes and the water could flow out. But it put a lot of strain to the bag handles. The dog was also so smart not to shake the water off in close proximity to us, when it jumped out of the bag on the safe land.

It seems that the capacitor is also attracting young cats which keep meowing all night since they cannot find an exit. Since the capacitor is fed by a pipe system from the roofs and surroundings of the hostel blocks the animals trapped in there, can go almost anywhere, being able to annoy all residents. If someone tries to catch them, they will escape into the pipes and come out at a far distant place. Usually the hunger will take care of the trapped animals and they begin to search for an exit more eagerly instead of being lazy and only crying for help. By that way, they will learn the lesson.

[Update: 21/09/2010] Last night, it happened once again. So far I figured out that there are two types of dogs: One type is smart. It knows, it struggles and without help, its life might be in danger. So if somebody approaches the water, the dog swims towards him and stays there. So it is very easy to grab its neck and to lift the dog out of the water. The other type, though, starts biting as soon as you reach the water. And it does not matter, how exhausted it is. The latter type fell into the water last night. So we had to build a complete platform including a latter, a bed, some sticks and a long metal stick. Took some time, but at 3:30AM (starting from 2AM) the dog was out of the water and we could go back to sleep again.