Bangalore vs The North Indians

Bangalore, we've reached a point of inflection of sorts. More roads are resembling the infamous Silk Board junction and Whitefield's narrow, horror of a road. We are already paying more money for water than any other city in India, with a lot of us not getting enough to live the life of dignity which we did just over a decade ago. Pollution is sickening quite literally and while the number of automobiles infesting the city with smoke are increasing, the cost of transport and everything else is rising quite sharply.

I say 'WE' because I've come to see this city as my own. Perhaps closer to me than Allahabad, a place where I was born and spent my childhood. I've been in Bangalore for over 6 years now, I do not speak Kannada and yes, I am a north Indian. The reason why I don't speak Kannada is not because I'm a north Indian snob who dislikes the south culture and expects the whole world to speak Hindi. On the contrary, I prefer these parts of the country over the parts I lived the first two decades of my life in. I do not speak the language because the people here always spoke to me in English or Hindi. I saw the average Bangalorean take pride in the fact that she could speak the language of a land she had never visited. For years I've fought battles on social media claiming Bangalore to be the best city in India and in each of those battles the one thing that was uncontested always, was how welcoming Bangalore was.

Now, things are changing. As always, humor is leading the way - “boxer shorts is the national dress of BTM layout”, “Koramangala is Amit Pradesh”, “Maruthi Nagar is the mini-Gulf” (jokes that I have indulged in too). But, in this humor things are taking an ugly turn when a friend suggests that we build a mega wall to keep the north Indians outside and have snipers guarding it!

Just a few years ago not speaking the language was a problem only if I got into a street fight with an auto driver but now, to quote a colleague, “it is a touchy subject”. The major reason for the war against South Indians, Gujaratis, Biharis, UP walas in Mumbai was economic – the local workforce was without jobs while the more skilled immigrants were taking a bigger piece of the pie. Sadly, in Bangalore the language subject has become touchy with comparatively lesser evils like traffic congestion and the naivety of the North Indian to demand 'paneer butter masala' at MTR!

The 'true Bangalorean' who complains about North Indians invading the good old Bangalore also tells me how Koramangala was not a part of Bangalore, BTM was a jungle where young women were discouraged from venturing out into at night and Whitefield was a place where one went for a day trip. As a North Indian who eats meat, smokes a cigarette or two once in a while, drinks alcohol and has friends who are women, my chances of 'invading' the good parts of Bangalore – Jayanagar, Baswangudi, Banashankari and the like – are minimal from the start in any case so I don't see much of a point in the complains. The fact that the center of the city (and the center of the city's action) has moved away from old parts of Bangalore is understandable.

I think the disagreement is not between Bangalore and the North Indians, the disagreement is between the old Bangalore and her ways and the new generation of a cosmopolitan city. It is easy to draw inferences from the surface of a situation when a problem crops up. North Indian invasion is not a problem for Bangalore, the poor infrastructure is! Immigration from other parts of the country (and world?) is an inevitability. The real culprits of this situation are the administrators, corporators and politicians who have failed to provide Bangalore with an infrastructure that could match the rate of growth! The question we should be asking is not why a North Indian does not speak the local language, the question is why the airport is 40+ kilometers away from the city when there is enough land between the airport and the city, why is the metro taking so much time to become functional and why is the water tanker mafia being allowed to take the city for a ride.

It is easy to be tolerant when everything is perfect. If an immigrant comes along and gives me business, there is no greatness in 'accepting' the outsider. It's when the presence of an outsider creates inconveniences that racial tolerance comes into picture. When Mumbai drives out thousands of South Indians and when Bangalore starts to expect one to learn the local language, they are both driven by the same racial discriminatory thought. Tolerance then is a mere affectation, and not so covert one either, especially when the 'tolerant' neighbor tells you, "we have allowed everyone to come to Bangalore" in a country where one of the reasons the current government got a landslide victory was opposition of Article 370 that gives special status to the state of J&K.

This could just be dismissed as an empty rant and nothing would make me happier if most of you do that. It would mean that the 'problem' that I'm seeing is in very select circles and most part of Bangalore is just like the group of men and women I met yesterday – in their late 60s-70s, speaking to each other in English who had traveled from South Bangalore to Indira Nagar to eat a Bengali keema roll at Chakum-Chukum with their families.

Say No To Auto On 12th Of August, 2010

The auto menace in Bangalore is not anything new. The auto drivers are rude, the meters (if functioning at all) are never working right and the fares increases for no particular reason. A night call and you pay double the meter, a distant area and you double, you're sick and there are not many autos around and you pay double, you are new to Bangalore and you pay double/triple, you are a foreigner and you pay whatever you can afford.
This has to stop! Participate in 'Meter Jam' on 12th of August and SAY NO TO AUTO this Thursday! Spread this to as many people as you can, as fast as you can and tell the unjust unions that in this country, in 'namma Bangaluru' people's opinion matters!!!

Political influence behind poor connectivity of IT corridors of India

Ever wondered why the IT corridors of India is so poorly connected by trains, which otherwise is the major transportation medium for the rest of India? But then on second thoughts, did you ever wonder why there are so many private travels in cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad? Even a child can put two and two together to come to a conclusion that something fishy is going on!
Bangalore, the silicon valley of India, has very less native population percentage. The majority of people working in Bangalore come from other southern regions like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andra Pradesh/Telangana. Now imagine this: there are just a few trains which connect Bangalore to Chennai and just one train which connects Bangalore to Hyderabad! This is the fact that contributes to the flourishing transport businesses (most of them, allegedly, run by people with political influences!) and the plight of the people who have to pay through their noses for the petty services offered by most of these travel companies.
On any weekend, chances of getting a ticket to/from Bangalore-Chennai – Hyderabad are negligible if you are not ready to pay an ‘additional fee’. These tickets are often sold in black right from the travel companies offices itself! Even the BMTC busses charge excess for tickets bought on the same day of travel.
This miserable situation is creating a number of employment opportunities for the local businesses but at the expense of passengers who are being looted and charged illegally high prices for the tickets! This loot from the IT employees is nothing new, similar trends can be observed in any other service in the IT corridors be it food (overpriced), security (police/traffic police charging illegal money in cities like Bangalore) or simple things like an auto-rickshaw ride. Unlike other industries the IT industry lacks a good union which can fight such atrocities and bring fair-play to the whole IT scene in India. The rest of India just knows one thing – IT is the money minting industry and the people there know how to spend money!
The whole private travel scene of the South India seems to be backed by heavy weight political powers as it makes no sense for the Indian Railways to ignore a lucrative leg of operations like the IT corridors of South India!

Bangalore's police are worse than the goons!

Imagine this: you step out of your home late at night for some work expecting that you live in a secure area with cops patrolling all through the night and end up getting robbed by the cops itself! If this is tough to imagine, just come down to Bangalore and find it out for yourself.
This is nothing new, even in CnC we've reported similar issues sometime back but everytime such an incident happens it brings a new shame for the face of Bangalore police.
How can the citizens feel safe when the people responsible for providing safety turn robbers themselves? My friends were sitting inside an auto close to our home in old airport road waiting for another friend to arrive when two cops stopped by and started insulting and abusing them. My friends were not drunk, were decently dressed and behaving appropriately in their own neighbourhood when they became victims of this uniformed hooliganism. A few localites who know them quite well since almost an year now refused to help, this could be due to the general fear that almost all of India has when it comes to police or could be a contempt against anyone who doesn't speak their language! It was all settled as usual by a 'donation' of Rs. 200 only!
This is the same exact location where one of my friend was robbed of his mobile phone and wallet just a few months back by some goons. It is but a shame if incidents like these keep happening in prime Indian cities.
The question is simple - who would you call when the people who come on dialing 100 are themselves turning into monsters?

Take the bus today!

Today is Bus Day in Bangalore city. A smart move by, arguably, the smartest bus services providers in India, BMTC. The slogan is simple - Take The Bus! The roads are expected to be free of the clutter due to the lakhs of privately owned vehicles (private cars and bikes) that trod the over 5000 Kilometres of Bangalore's tarred surface everyday! Starting off on the 4th of February, 2010, the BMTC plans to organize such 'Bus Days' on the 4th of every month from now on if the initiative gets a good response from the people of Bangalore and the roads remain relatively trouble free. Additional busses are operating across the city with a high frequency in key areas like Electronic City, etc.
The Bus Day has been hailed by many and everyone is trying to contribute to this initiative by spreading the news. There are thousands of Bangalore's bloggers, Tweeps, Journos who are making people aware of this initiative in their networks. Radio Stations are doing special shows and local news channels are keeping a track of things as well.
BMTC is India's only public road transport service to actually run in profit (The fine collection alone runs in more than Rs. 20 Crore! a year) The revenues collected from the busses plying in Bangalore city alone are higher than that of the busses run in the rest of Karnataka! Some smart thinking and good execution takes the credit and with initiatives like the 'Bus Days' it is sure to attract some attention from other city transport services which can learn a thing a two to give better service for both the people and the environment of the city!
For more information log on to the BMTC website - unlike other Government websites this one is updated regularily and is functional and useful!

A foodie - Indian Styled.

I'm one of those lucky people who can eat a lot and not show a bit of it on their body (smiles)! Food for me has just 2 categories: tasty, not-tasty. The other categories like fattening, fried, unhygienic, calorie rich, etc. is not in my dictionary. On top of that I come from the Northern part of India where even political campaigns have to accommodate popular fast food items in their election slogans (remember the catchy line: "Jab tak rahega samose me aalu ..." sadly, Lalu is almost extinct now and so are the samosa slogans in Bihar). For the past 1 year I have been living in Bangalore. The chip city of India has been good to me (its also the Pub capital of India by the way) but I miss the fast food of North here. You can almost always spot a 'chat' shop here but the taste does not compare in any way to the 'Shiv Chat Bhandaar' or 'Pappu Chat Wale' or the million other famous chat shops of any city in Northern India. Add to these chat shops (though you can't call them that because they don't serve 'sakaude' or 'kachaudi') a host of Dosa outlets and that's about it! There's nothing more desi stuff that you can eat! I dare say that even the dosa, though much more healthier here, is totally different in taste (we can have a discussion on which one tastes better sometime!) I remember back in Allahabad (a very small town in Uttar Pradesh!) we used to stop at least in one shop for a samosa, kachodi, jalebi, anarsa, lassi, even if we were going for a morning walk. Running in the Company Garden in a winter morning and then waiting for the 'Heera halwai' to open for its famous 'dahi-jalebi'. I see people are much more health conscious here (only low calorie, fat free soy milk after a workout), sadly, they are health conscious but not all that healthy! It was never an issue there to eat in a road side shop if the things sold were tasty, here's its very difficult to find one! It is possible in a city like Delhi to live on a fast food diet for a month (even more if your digestion permits!) without having to eat the same thing twice (I may be wrong about the 'month', it could be much higher than that!), compare that with Bangalore - if you decide not to eat dosa, idly, rice and the western snacks/fast food items, you would find it hard to live for a day!

Bangalore deserves a night life!

As much as I think about it, I can never fathom a reason for shutting down a city like Bangalore at 10/11 PM! I am told that Bangalore used to be a happening place with a vibrant night life a few years back. Then 'IT' happened, and then the people started flooding this peaceful city irking the localities, then we had the 'ausi-behavior' in 'Namma Bangalooru' and the people from Karnataka started turning hostile towards people not-from-karnataka (this sadly continues till date and random (unreported) incidents of violence dot the city).
Somehow, during all this turmoil that was happening in this over-burdened city the people up the civil ladder decided that the solution to Bangalore's problems was banning the night life (as if the night life was responsible for the narrow, unplanned roads, the disappearing lakes and gardens, the rising levels of pollution)!
Now, most of the shops, pubs and other places to hang around close before 11:00 PM. The interesting things to consider are:

• This city has the most number of companies operating at night (remember the BPO and other outsourcing?)
• The vibe of the city is predominantly young!
• Tourism/hospitality is also a flourishing industry in Bangalore as many companies have clients coming in from around the world.

A few high profile (and mostly private) parties do happen till late in the night but for most common people all the fun just ends at page#3. Last year Mr.Mallya also protested the ban on the night life calling the 'cindrella rule' 'dictatorial and utter rubbish'. What is even more stupid is the 'no-dancing-rule' imposed across all party places. Contrast this with the fact that Bangalore is also the operational centre of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who promises to give one a better way of life and dancing is a major mechanism in his teachings!
All work and no party would soon make Bangalore a pretty dull place!

Bangalore on the brink of destruction?

Bangalore has many strategic advantages as a place in India which can be used for establishing important industries and offices. It is one of India's fastest growing cities, already expanded beyond its limits and now almost about to explode. The IT hub, India's silicon valley, Bangalore has been favoured over many other cities in the past when it comes to investing in mainstream industries and infrastructure.
The social structure, economic standard and awareness of Bangalore is much above many cities in India (and the world). Bangalore has emerged as the city with the highest standard of living in India (its rank is 150th in the world).
Bangalore is also the seat of a very sensitive institution of our country, the Air Force. It was primarily established in Bangalore as the place enjoys a distance from Pakistan, China, Bangaladesh and Sri Lanka which at that time was beyond the striking range of these countries. Arabian Sea to its other side makes it a perfect city to enable all other places by serving as a central powerhouse.
The weather in Bangalore made it one of the most favourable cities for the growth of important industries like the Information and Technology, BPO, etc. There were other places with cooler climate but they were not quite as connected as Bangalore was.
Even many sages and spiritual gurus have found Bangalore a perfect city to settle down in. It is a perfect mix of good weather and comfort (amenities, facilities, connectivity, etc.) for these spiritual leaders who find (for good reasons) that sitting at Himalayas and meditating is not as good as connecting with people, improving their lives (and making a big empire in the long run).
All these wonderful things are coming to an end for Bangalore soon! The city is not blessed with good weather anymore. The sun has the mercury rising and a new record is being made each day. The felling of trees and the exponentially growing traffic is making things worse. The population of the city has grown out of bounds now, the city is on the brink of exploding. The infrastructure is not enough to support the growth rates of the city and with a few very important projects, like the flyover to the Electronic City, being stalled as Maytas was behind them, the situation is going to go from bad to worse.
A lot of government attention is indeed needed. A good infra and a reliable public transport would make things better drastically. On an individual level, people need to become more environment friendly in their daily life activities. Practices like car pooling, using more public transport, saving electricity, fuel, would go a long way in improving things in Bangalore.
PS: The pic is something interesting I saw being done in a nearby street (in a place called BTM layout, quite popular amongst the IT folks as they start their career), the people from the electricity department are installing an electric pole with the help of the common men on the streets :)

Dogs of Bangalore

Bangalore has been many things to many people. A retiree's paradise, a garden city, the Indian silicon valley, an outsourcing hub and so many other names are given to this city which has outgrown its own resources in so many ways. Another thing that may be added to B'lore's credit could be the dog lovers that the city has in abundance. And where there are dog lovers there are dogs, and oh so many of them!
In a survey done in 2001, it was estimated that Bangalore has a dog population of more than 3.25 lakh out of which a majority (61%) are strays. And there is no reason to believe that this dog population has not grown proportionately with the human population.
The dogs of Bangalore are relatively healthier than the usual (my yardstick were the dogs in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and the dogs in both these places under-perform when compared to the ones in Bangalore!). And when a dog is healthier it is also more dangerous. I'm your ordinary dog lover (the kind of person who likes dogs, loves them and does pretty ordinary things to prove his love like feeding them a piece of biscuit sometimes) so I don't have anything against these animals (after all we have been living with dogs in harmony for generations) but there are times when these little bastards (forgive my language but I really did mean it and don't have a substitute for that word) can team up against you and challenge your 'freedom of (harmless) walk' in their neighbourhood.
Ask any guy/gal working in a call centre in Bangalore and all of them would have a harrowing tale to tell about how they were 'attacked' by a hound of dogs while they were returning late night from work. I've had a similar experience twice (thought of going out for a walk at 2:00 AM with a KF can in hand) after which I decided to make those neighbourhood hoods my friends and tried not to forget them whenever I was having biscuits. Life has been much easier around my house since.
Some hard hitting facts are there about dogs and the city of Bangalore.

• Very few pets in Bangalore are registered.
• Most stray dogs (86%) are rabid.
• Bangalore has a dog:human ratio of 1:12 (old stats, things are worse now).

But, whatever said and done, a dog lover is a dog lover for life. Bangalore has more dog shows than any other city in India. The average number of dogs per house in Bangalore is much higher than any other city in India. Dogs of Bangalore are much healthier than those of any other city (based on experience, please correct me if I'm wrong).
Finally, since this article talks about dogs and the love that the city of Bangalore shows towards them I leave you with a picture that I found stuck on a tree here in a park a few days back. If you are able to find 'Tiger' and report it to its owners CnC would earn some karma points!

Bloggers' meet at St. Joseph's, Bangalore organized by IBNMS.

BlogCampBangaluru was my first 'blogging un-conferences' organized by IBNMS and it got me hooked beyond doubt.

It had a sluggish start (Saturday morning 9:30 is quite an ask for Bangalore, the city which celebrates weekdays like Christmas) with people trickling in slowly as we began. Pramodh from Injoos started off with his presentation on how bloggers can find a business model around what they 'love' to do. Followed by a gentleman who has been a veteran journalist with Hindu and has recently given up his job and switched to blogging and online publishing as his bread and butter! Mr. Anand Parthasarthy is an old man with an energy that puts quite a lot of people, (like me) who love to call themselves 'young', to shame and his years of experience in the traditional journalism has backed his decision to switch to blogging as a money making device.
Seagate, the principal sponsors behind the event, came in next. It's an organizers plight to have the sponsor talk delivered by a monotonous 'corporate' guy without passion for his product! Even the funny anecdotes by Ajay failed to keep the spirit of the meet up :( I'm yet to see Steve Jobs live so can't generalize the statement but most 'corporate' announcements or releases have failed to impress me, that's why I look forward to reading about the product when my favourite blogger does a post on it!
There was a talk by Ajay Jain, the person behind this particular blog meet, on how the relationship between PR and the blogging community is finding new meanings and what needs to be done to strengthen the bond. Amit Gupta talked about 'Blogging beyond english', I was surprised to know that there was such a big community which blogged in other Indian languages (you can check the Blog Camp wiki for the presentation).
Dr. Ashish Gupta (if I write all that he 'is', I wont find place to write anything else, so I'll just say that he's been a Venture Capitalist of late) expressed his ideas on the difficulty (and near impossibility in the current scenario) for a blogger to find an investor to fund her. We have our own ideas though and IBM's arrogance was Xerox's, Apple's (and so many others like them) chance to make money in a market which the 'big guys' didn't even realize existed!
There were 2 speakers who personally impressed me a lot. A 67 (I guess, based on the fact that he retired in 2004) years old gentleman, Mr. Prabir Ghose who started blogging very late in his life and is now an authority on the web and a charming young gentleman, Mr. Keerthi Kiran who is one of the few people who has tried to contribute to the society by empowering others (like him) to take an affirmative action.

If you are under the age of 25 and want to make a difference to the country you live in and are proud of, do visit Grass Routes and find out more about it.

PS: Its a shame that the head count kept going down as the day progressed. Lets blame it on those who left early, they were at the wrong place to start with :). It was a great platform to get in touch with people who think like you (or 'un-like' you but 'think' at least), Seagate sponsored lunch was one of the best 'cold pizzas' I've had ever 'cuz of the company I had it with!

Bangalore - Bitter, sweet symphony

Mr. Manjunath (name changed) and his wife had decided long ago (back in 1970s) to settle in a peaceful city after his retirement from the government job that he was into. They had chosen Bangalore over the other choices as it had a good weather and all facilities that people in their older days may want. Close to 40 years later they regret their decision even as they continue to live in Bangalore and have come to terms with the life in this IT capital of India.
The tale of Mr. Manjunath is not unique. Like many others his age he had saved (the concept of saving for the future is something unique to India, recession may teach the west some Indian values) a little money for his post retirement life, taken a small 'home' in Bangalore and had thought of living out the rest of his days in the garden city.
The IT and silicon took over Bangalore and the little savings evaporated in no time. Mr. Manjunath was forced to find other ways to keep the income flowing into his household and he now owns a small shop selling groceries and condiments which is taken care of by his wife, himself and their domestic help (a small kid, some 11 years old).
Mr. Manjunath is still a happy man as he is proud that he's still independent and doesn't have to ask for monetary support from his relatives. However, the change in his facial expressions is evident when one talks to him about his past plans and how the city's development has robbed his post retirement peace plans.
Bangalore has also created new avenues for a number of people (not everyone is complaining). Mrs. Neelam is an independent woman who carries 3 cellphones with her (and they keep ringing all the time). Married into a marwari family at an early age, she was not able to graduate from a secondary school. Her husband, a government employee working in Bangalore, is today proud of his wife who earns much more than him. She started giving PG (paying guest) accommodations to young girls and boys who were flooding the Bangalore's already crowded streets a few years ago and the rest is history. At present she owns 3 buildings and has taken 6 more on lease where she runs her hostels and PG accommodations. She still finds it difficult to speak fluently in English but manages well in the five stars hotels and resorts of Goa where she goes every year to celebrate the new year's eve with her 'kitty' friends!

Pratibha Patil, another 'pratima' of inaction !

Honourable President of India, Shrimati Pratibha Patil, was in Bangalore a few days back (sorry I don't remember which day it was!).

If you are one of those people who have never wished for a president like Mr. Obama, or never thought that it was important who was running the country as long as your salary was fat enough to feed your dogs, then you will continue to have presidents like Mrs. Patil who fail to make their presence felt on any platform (quite miserably). The news that the president was in Bangalore was covered by the newspapers but very few people knew about it. She was here for inaugurating some new facility of Apolo hospital. For a president as jobless as her it wont be surprising if she would be available for the inauguration of a CnC 'Guess who?' quiz!!!

Your next PM or President would have 'pratibha' or would be just another 'pratima', you decide! Jai Hind!

10 things you need to know before you choose a PG accommodation

If you are looking for accommodation as a Paying Guest in a city like Bangalore, there are many ways to end up in a situation where you are paying more for a less facilitated place. It is fairly difficult to find an ideal PG where you get to stay with a family and the chances are high that the accommodation you rent is more like a hostel.
Here is a list (not comprehensive by any means) of things you should check before you enter a contract with the landlord.

1. It is important to have multiple toilets, bathrooms if you are in a ‘multiple-sharing’ room (two of more people in the same room) as all the inmates may have to leave for work at the same time. If a single facility is available it is a good idea to look for a place which has the toilet, bathroom and washbasin secluded from each other.
2. The room should get ample sunlight and must be airy. In a multiple storey building it is advisable to be placed somewhere in the middle so that you don’t have to climb a lot of stairs and at the same time your windows are not blocked by adjoining buildings.
3. Make sure that the room has multiple plug points, preferably in all corners of the room.
4. The water should be clean and fit for consumption. There may not be any means to check this but inform the landlord if and when you find any sort of rashes or infection in your skin. Warm water facility may be necessary as the morning and evening temperatures may dip very low at times.
5. The room should be in a residential area, even the presence of a cottage industry or a coaching institute can be a source of continuous disturbance and noise pollution.
6. Medical facilities, market, food facilities, etc. should be near.
7. Before entering into a commitment with the landlord, make sure that all electrical, appliances, switch boards, etc. are in perfect condition. All appliances should be properly earthed.
8. Cupboard should have locking facility. Put your own lock as the landlord/caretaker usually has a set of keys to clean your room even in your absence.
9. Make sure that no hidden charges exist. It may be advisable to enter a legal contract with the landlord. In such a case read all the clauses very carefully specially the ones which talk about the ‘minimum contract period’ and ‘notice period’ before vacating the room. The advance paid (if any) should be fully refundable with a shortest notice people possible.
10. Make sure your landlord/landlady is a sane person who understands the language you speak.