The Gripe of the Cynic

It's the same city. Yet it's different. The monuments are the same alright - of course some have given way to others and some have adapted to survive - but the men aren't. Stepping back into Bangalore after a decade and I'm yet to find my feet and call it my home again. I'm not the one who bellows, "oh, the place has changed so much! I can't believe it". I was a part of Bangalore when the city began its journey towards change. Along the way there are many changes that surely weren't planned, weren't welcome too. But then every place changes. Bangalore has NOT changed much and that's why I find it such a pain. 

 Those that haven't change include:

* Kannada movie stars - they look as pathetic as they were in the '90s. I guess the local population secretly admires the ordinary looking or even the downright unpresentable (I'm being politically correct by not calling anyone '****'). Else how could you explain the success of a Ganesh or a Vijay or even a Darshan (I've watched ONLY Ganesh in a movie, will come to that later). The lesser said the better about the heroines. It seems BAR Girls are having a field day as heroines (Beyond ANY Redemption/Repair) - example, Sanjana Gandhi. Yikes!

* Roads - The same old ones with more traffic. They weren't bad when they were first laid. But nothing has been done after that. Probably the incidence of flyovers in a city is the lowest in Bangalore (as compared to any other metro). One must however laud the growth of the city still. It has hardly received any help from any governmental quarter. But yet it's made it to the TOP in the sunshine sectors. No roads lead to Bangalore. People fly into this place! Everyone who enters this city is greeted with HORNS by a street-ful of madmen.

* Shopping - It was bad in the '90s and it's worse now (at best). With the advent of Factory Price Outlets everyone sports a brand today (and that's the ONLY good thing, though lesser said the better of the brands sported). Despite the new and extremely crowded (hyped and not hyper) malls. The worst is the parking fee one has to pay at these claustrophobic dungeons! One has to pay to experience horror! The only decent shopping area I've discovered is 100ft Road of Indiranagar/Domlur. 

 *Partying and Police - The deadlines stay firmly in place. The Police is as hungry for the quickbuck as ever. Night shows have almost disappeared from the minds and memories of families. 

 *Kannada - Conspicuous by its absence. It was the same then and now. But I might be one of the few mourners. Others don't seem to remember anything like it existed.

Bangalore Rocks!

The terror turkey has come home to roost. The myth of a secure Bangalore was long shattered when the blasts had occurred in IISC a few years ago. However, those blasts today are hazy memory to most Bangaloreans.

Today 6 low intensity blasts have taken place at multiple locations - Adugodi, Nayandahalli, Madivala among others. Placement of bombs at widely scattered locations and the precision of timing indicates meticulous planning and extremely devious (BUT/& intelligent) minds. The city is yet to groan to a grinding halt. People surely have been thrown out of their comfortable rocking chair existence today. The blasts establish the laxity in security and lack of concern regarding safety provisions within the city. We still can not however make comments about intelligence network and its success or failure. Any negative comment at this juncture would not only be hasty but also flippant.

Will the Governments wake up? Will also the common man wake up to the new reality? That there is NOTHING called a safe place anymore. Do we wake up to become REAL citizens?

Bangalore, it's not just Mumbai (and Delhi and Hyderabad) that rocks.. Is it just the beginning or is it the beginning of an end?

Auto-matic!

Parents around. The only desire they'd have while here with me is to visit the relatives in and around Bangalore - apart from temple-trotting. Since y'day was a holiday I reluctantly decided give them company. One reason to say yes to accompany them was the difficulty to find an auto from the place where I reside.

Thankfully we didn't have to wait much. And even better, the auto-driver knew the 'right' way and didn't try to take us by the longest route possible (as is wont with many in Bangalore). But the surprise awaited us when we alighted. He took out a new fare list and said, "that's Rs. 63 Sir". The meter read 50.50. "But I haven't seen any notification in the newspapers. Nor was it on the TV" I said. "I don't know sir. I also was handed over this by my driver-friends this morning only". Any ways he relented and took money as per the current meter.

This experience repeated several times in the same day. What kind of a hoax are these auto drivers up to? Is it THAT easy to con the 'choiceless' and probably gullible auto-seeking public of Bangalore? This is the new way to swindle - apart from asking for more outrightly, refusing to come to the place you'd want to travel to, asking for 'one-and-half meter fare' even before the clock chimes 9 in the night!

So much for awareness, consumer rights and 'jago grahak' thingies!