Bangalore came alive to me years
before I started living here, through my friend's accounts of her summer
vacation stay here. I have forgotten many of her anecdotes, but I do have a
vivid memory of her narration of the' magical place' called Kemp fort. This was
much before the advent of new gen malls, one amongst which, the Kemp fort has
given way to. Her generous admiration together with the awe that
inspired, I created a fluffy idea of Bangalore.Namma metro, as it is called
here, remained in memory as nothing short of a wonderland. Call it naive,
but with it's stature as the IT hub, ‘the happening place' Bangalore was kept
revered on a pedestal. The step into reality happened some twenty plus years
later, as we moved to Bangalore after a decade hiatus in the American mid-west.
As is with all cases of grandiose expectations, the reality takes
time to sink in.Yes,the weather is pleasant, and there's much greenery. But, I
certainly did not expect people queuing with fluorescent pails for water early
in the morning which is a rare sight in my hometown of Palakkad itself. People
with plush cars belonging to even more plush IT corridors, honking away is
something sans logic unless they believe, the traffic can be moved with the
power of the decibels thus created!.The inadequate infrastructure and the stand
still traffic during rains prompting people to leave their vehicles stranded
presented a picture of a metro in dysfunction. Awaiting the gates to open
at the railway crossing is hilarious and outright defiant at times. The revving
up of many auto rickshaws, the ever maneuvering two wheelers, the countless
sedans...everybody vying for the first escape to freedom...resulting in a
crammed ,..if-i-cant-move,dare-you-to kind of situation. Finally two inches
forward, an inch back..tilt to one side, duck to the other..oh sweet freedom.
Only that it took more time had everybody kept to their spots. One of
the pastimes could very well be identifying the cars with dents(almost,
a badge of honour)and those without.
The initial disenchantment gave
way to the subtle truth. The metro reveals day in and out that this is a place
where people trapped in the past and those relishing the present coexist.
People who go to the market for buying vegetables and those who find them a click
away. People depending on shared auto, and those with an assorted ownership of
swanky automobiles. An array of people who come to work for you, driver, cook, gardener,
domestic help, sometimes outnumbering those in the house. Each member of the
house hooked on to their personal laptops..exemplifying the adage, ”to each his
own" the space ,at times creating uncomfortable distances in relationships.
And there are many with the physical lack of space, resulting in the push
and shove, cut throat competition among the lesser privileged. In the context
where cozy politicians rattle about the price of meals reminds me of one
particular summer, when the area was facing shortage of water..is it a wonder
that the swimming pools of apartments and gated communities were pelted with
stones?
As the scenario exists today, the
population is divided between those who live in secure gated communities or
apartments and those who live outside of it. The cocooned existence insulating
those who can afford them from the other Bangalore, of which they are reminded
by the inconvenient waste dumps on the road sides. Tirelessly,the lack of
social and civic sense, is bemoaned by the community wallahs. Their hypocrisy
exposed in the lethargy exhibited in separating their own dry and wet
wastes as mandated by the BBMP. They are a population in denial. Defying the statistics,
they cannot accept that they belong to the top percentile, of the population.
They go by the name the upper middle class as the waste segregation continues
without much change.
There is no denying that Bangalore is a pleasant place to live,
cosmopolitan at that too, only that its feel off mark to call it a benign city
of lakes. Its simply a place on the map for those who have benefited
from the boom town and for those it has by passed to be juxtaposed. As long as
the latter can live off the former, and it rains enough, there is not
much threat of discord. Hoping the hope is well placed.
