Today in the news

There are some stories in the Deccan Herald that seem as though they're plucked straight from the pages of a typical New Zealand newspaper.
 

Bus strikes currently feature on the websites of both the Deccan Herald and the New Zealand Herald, while one of yesterday's big national stories, the 0.25 per cent reduction in India's cash reserve ratio, was straight out of Dr Alan Bollard's playbook.
 

There is, unsurprisingly, an emphasis on cricket, with the forthcoming Twenty20 World Cup garnering significant column inches in both countries.
 

And Kate Middleton is hot property no matter where you are.
 

Then there are the stories that remind me - if the cows in the street weren't reminder enough - I am in India.
 

Muslim discontent born out of the controversial American-made film released to the web last week is a lot more real in a country with the third-largest Muslim population in the world. The US Consulate in Chennai was closed this week after anti-American protests outside of the building continued, while one person was killed in similar protests in neighbouring Pakistan.
 

Suicide is another story the Indian press make more real, describing in detail an issue the New Zealand media is prevented from reporting.
 

Not only are methods discussed but also motives, such as an argument with a partner over the family finances. One of the first stories I read in Bangalore detailed an unseemly increase in the number of people jumping to their deaths in the city, a pattern prompted, it was said, by a similar increase in high-rise buildings in the rapidly-developing city.
 

Something else on the rise in Bangalore is the amount of noise in the city. A report yesterday said Bangalore was now the seventh-noisiest city in the country which, after even the shortest period of time spent outside on MG Road, makes you feel extremely sorry for the other six cities.
 

Among factors given to explain the noise was "gratuitous horn use" among vehicles. The type of investigation and analysis which brought that breakthrough would be welcomed in any country's press.
 

Even Woodward and Bernstein would be proud.