rat

Strikes have led to rubbish piling up, with uncollected waste several feet high in some streets in the first few months, amid complaints of rats, foxes and seagulls tearing open plastic bags.

Within weeks of arriving, I loathed Madras, where rats stole the padding from my earphones, the humidity left me weak and men tailed my mother in traffic, desperate to buy our imported car.

A new demographic label has swept through China’s social-media feeds in recent months: “rat people.”

Rats live in drains, sewers and burrows, and emerge mostly at night, so counting them is nearly impossible and estimates on rat population figures vary.

But Dharmendra wore his stardom lightly, staying away from the rat race and said he never wanted to be number one in the industry.