They are enormous dogs. Each one a representative of the neighbourhood they are settled in, and each has a dedicated band of supporters and antagonisers. Unless the dog in question is Kutta Singh, in which case the whole universe is her supporter.

Life is pretty bleak for most people on earth. Delhi is seeing inane policies to purportedly curb sexual crimes against women who just wanted to study in college, police action against people asking for fair electoral practices, and the kind of injustice that has become everyday but remains ghastly.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty

An Instagram poll on who the best fat dog of Delhi solves absolutely nothing. It takes us nowhere close to equality and eradicates no social evil. It just allows a moment of levity and the embrace of a very essential part of Delhi and many other Indian cities. Many of us love dogs. Many of us are scared of them. Many of us are judges and feel that the streets should be free of dogs.

You might ask what this useless exercise achieves. Indeed, that is a fair question. Ours is a country where the stiff-collared, real electoral exercise is keen to keep 13 crores out. Two men charged with running the apex electoral body have said that they are none the wiser on several key factors governing these deletions. So surely we don't take elections that seriously?

These polls will go on till September 29. Our troubles will remain. But each time Chewbacca Raza Singh of Soami Nagar South lies down belly-first, he will do it with the certainty that the cool comfort of the marble floor will lull him to an especially nice sleep. Like him, this is a Big Thing.

Soumashree Sarkar is news editor at The Wire.

We've grown up hearing that "it's the small things" that matter. That's true, of course, but it's also not - there are Big Things that we know matter, and that we shouldn't take our eyes, minds or hearts off of. As journalists, we spend most of our time looking at those Big Things, trying to understand them, break them down, and bring them to you.

And now we're looking to you to also think about the small things - the joy that comes from a strangers' kindness, incidents that leave you feeling warm, an unexpected conversation that made you happy, finding spaces of solidarity. Write to us about your small things at thewiresmallthings@gmail.com in 800 words or less, and we will publish selected submissions. We look forward to reading about your experiences, because even small things can bring big joys.

Read the series here.