Out of a Fucked up City ...

This is the day I dreamt for seven and a half years, a fire which was always burning inside me all the time. I am so happy today that GOD has helped me fulfilled my dream and I am finally setting my base in my lovely hometown Chennai. I wish and pray that I should never go out of this city again in my life for any professional assignments. No city can match the warmth and comfort that your hometown offers you, every individual who is staying away from his / her hometown, would always have the urge to come back to their hometown, it's a fact not many people would disagree. 

I came to Bangalore with utmost joy like how every software engineer would have in him. It is the California of INDIA and the kind of weather that city had when I came in 2004 was quite typical to the bay area of SFO. Life seems to be bliss and I felt as if I am living my dream. As everyone knows, dream's are always short lived, so as mine. That city started showing its true face, the sugar coating on the tablet was no more there, and all that leftover was bitterness.

I was stamped as a person who always cribs about Bangalore, whenever there used to be an argument on which city is the best - Chennai or Bangalore, I used to flare up and blindly support Chennai, yes, I refused to see the minimal good things that Bangalore city had, one point, my friends were open to even let me know that I should get out of that city, instead of doing an "arm-chair cribbing". They accused me saying, I am staying in Bangalore (even though I hate that city) just because I am getting a handsome pay package which no city in this country can offer for an IT professional.

One filthy attitude of Bangalorean's which really makes my blood boil is this - Road's are not tarred? "Chalegaa", Street Lights are not lit? "Chalegaa", Drainage is blocked and flows on the road? "Chalegaa", No water supply for a week? "Chalegaa", Dog menace? "Chalegaa". This lethargic, lazy and irresponsible attitude of every bangalorean, has cost the city very dearly. Number of trees the city has lost since 2004 to till date is something every citizen of Bangalore city should be ashamed off, and the cruel joke is they still call that city as Garden City. Why can't they stand up for their own rights? Why should they bend so much to the level where they are dumb enough to even realize that they are missing the basic needs?

The governing body of Bangalore (BBMP) is one of the most corrupt institutions of this country. They hardly do anything to that city's development, but never fail to come to your doorstep to collect the "Property Taxes". Show me a city in INDIA where in the public display sign boards like "Street Names, Bus Numbers, Government Buildings etc" all written only in their local language? Why such an attitude? What will an outsider do? Is that not a practice in this country which was ruled by the British to have signs displayed in English as well as their local language? A fucked up government does not have the mind to change this and the spineless citizens of that city too does not bother to mind.

It is easy to say that one individual cannot change the nation, if Gandhi would have thought the same, probably we would still be under the regime of British, but in one way that would have been better, because the Britisher’s wouldn't have made us beg for such basic amenities like road and proper infrastructure. The kind of growth INDIA has seen after independence would just be 20% from what we had before independence. Chennai as a city is 40 years ahead of what Bangalore is today, we may call Bangalore as the silicon valley of INDIA, but when a city lacks such basic infrastructure like proper transport, roads, electricity and drainage system, I would not want to call this place a CITY in the first thought.

The maximum the people of Bangalore can boast off is it's weather, fortunately the geography of that city is made in such a way that it is above the sea level and obviously the temperatures tend to drop at that altitude, nothing to be proud off from a city administration perspective. Chennai on the other hand may have a weather pattern like a sauna, but the infrastructure developments is top notch and Bangalore will take another 50 years to come to a situation of how Chennai is today. Every administration in this country is corrupt, we all know that, but nothing can match Bangalore in that, they are pioneers in corruption, and the mind-less citizens fuel that corruption more, by not standing up against the odds.

Some of the most weird and strange things one can see in the CITY of Bangalore are as follows, and mind you guys, you cannot see these iconic things anywhere else in this country. These are the points which prove that the civic administration of this CITY is the shittiest and they have no brains even the size of their balls. Just run through your memory and see if you can match any of these with the cities you have lived in INDIA. Bangalore's traffic nightmare is the cause for slowing down of the hi-paced Garden City's advancement

1. Bus stops placed at the middle of a T junction, Bus stops placed right in the turning or corner of a road, bus stops placed at the start of a fly over, end of a fly over.

2. Speed breaker right after you take a turn. No fcuker can go more than 20 (max speed) in a turning, who can have such brainy ideas to put a speed breaker there? 

3. Doing road / sewage works bang in the middle of the road at 9 AM when the rest of the folks would be rushing to their work. 

4. While the rest of India drives on the left side of the road; Bangaloreans drive on what's left of the road. Have you seen two wheelers zipping on the platform and have the tenacity to honk at the pedestrians who are using that platform? 

5. In the rest of India, there's no flyover with a traffic intersection; in Bangalore, they have a traffic signal and criss-crossing traffic atop a flyover.

6. In the rest of India, one-way roads mean traffic can only move one way; in Bangalore, there are two ways traffic can move on a one-way road.

7. The city that adds 600 to 800 vehicles to its girdle everyday; (that is, nearly two-and-a half lakh vehicles every year) has just 1,800 policemen manning it. (source: BBMP Website) 

I don’t dare to accept the fact that I HATE THAT CITY FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, but at the same time, that city has given me some very good friends, I don't mix both these emotions in one bucket. I have a lot of Kannadiga friends, I respect them and I am fortunate to have them as my friend, but that does not mean I have to hide what I feel about their city, they too can be open in commenting about Chennai, it's their view, their perception, like how I crib about Bangalore is my view and my perception. Friendship stands tall amidst of all these difference of opinions and no friendship is spicy without difference of opinions. I know I may get brickbats for this article, but yes, truth is always bitter.

This post is not to rub the sentiments of my kannadiga friends, certainly not, it is just my honest view about the city and its people. In Chennai, last week there was a road roko in T.Nagar, for what you know ? A drainage cap was broken and the Chennai corporation did not mind to change it for over a month, but today, that cap has been replaced, that is what I would say a "Social Responsible Citizen" should do. In Bangalore that drainage cap would never be closed, as no one would have bothered to even notice that the cap has been removed. If at all Bangalorean’s have to protect their already burnt out city, they have to stand up now and voice their concerns, if not it will be too late and even those stray dogs will run out of that city in coming years. Every city in INDIA is fucked up, but Bangalore is being FUCKED even when it is BLEEDING. Stop Fucking, Stop Bleeding. Please bring back the tagline "Garden City" to that place. 

By A Happy Chennaite.