I have stayed in Bangalore for about 2 years and I have come to like this city very much. I haven't stayed in Mumbai for long but having stayed in Delhi for last two months and having visited Chennai, I think Bangalore is the only 'big' city where I can survive without losing my mind.
The biggest allure of Bangalore, as anybody who has stayed in Bangalore for some time would know, is its weather. Bangalore is the city with best weather in India. Period. No comparisons. A close second in this list is the all year round offering of a variety of quizzes. To a quizzer like me, Bangalore is the next best thing to heaven. Then there are other small goodies like book shops where the owner knows about the book he is selling, people who are not excessively rude, and a collection of young people from different places in India.
Even then, I have a few concerns about Bangalore. Bangalore has still not been able to upstage either Delhi or Mumbai and it has serious competition from cities like Hyderabad and Chennai. In this post, I will look at some of the measures which Bangalore can take to launchpad itself in the same league as Delhi and Mumbai and still retain its old world charm.
1. Complete the Metro
I first came to Bangalore in July 2007. The construction for the Metro had just begin. I figured that the Metro should be up and running by 2009. Its 2010 now and there are still no signs of Metro. To add to the misery, most of the roads of Bangalore have been dug up to construct the towers for Metro. Bangalore didn't have very wide roads to begin with. With the increasing population and roads being dug up, traffic has become really slow moving.
2. Develop the Suburbs
People should be given incentives to move to the suburbs. If you can't guarantee them water and electricity, why would anyone want to move to suburbs, especially when the real estate bubble has pushed the price of property in suburbs very high as well. Bangalore proper can hold only so many people and I think that level was breached quite long back.
3. Drop the Kannada thing
This could be the most controversial point of the post. In an age of globalization, where the world is marching towards one global language, it is foolish to rant and protest about having road signs in Kannada. If you insist on making the city unfriendly to visitors, the visitors would stop coming. I guess it shouldn't be very difficult to understand even for rabble rousers. Its alright to make Kannada compulsory up to a certain standard in schools. It is okay to mark funds to promote Kannada literature. But it is not okay at all to raise trouble because the shop names are not written in Kannada. Even the so called 'cow belt' is not so foolish. Only the smallest shops in UP and Bihar have names written in Hindi. Why should they? Everybody, who has money to shop in there, understands English. So, dear 'Bengaluru', do yourself a favour and drop this language shit.
4. Better Public Transport
Bangalore is crying out for a better and cleaner public transport. First step, kick the butt of Autowallahs. There are simply too many autowallahs in Bangalore. There is a distinct need of consolidations in the autorickshaw industry. There should be two or three big service providers and the autowallahs should be forced to affiliate to them. That would make the autowallahs accountable to someone. Remove the traffic police. These people are totally corrupt and unhelpful to people. Yesterday, I took a prepaid auto from Forum mall to Mysore Road. The Bill - 120 bucks. The day before I had hailed an Auto from the road and paid him 60 bucks for the same ride. If the people designated to protect the commuters are so corrupt, then where should the poor commuter go?
Thankfully, Bangalore has moved in the right direction with Bus transport and there are more number of Buses on the road. The frequency and the number of AC buses has increased as well. This should help in keeping people from using cars and other environmentally ineffecient means of travel.
5. Impose big taxes on cars and petrol
Bangalore hasn't got the infrastructure to be a city where everyone is riding his/her own car to office. To dissuade people from using cars, impose steepling tariff on car purchase and petrol for personal use.
Here are my views. Bangaloreans, please pour in your views/comments about the post.
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I guess all the points are targeted towards local authorities, except the 3rd one. I did not understand who is this line exactly addressed to -"So, dear 'Bengaluru', do yourself a favour and drop this language shit."?
ReplyDeleteI feel that the Kannada thing is not really being imposed on others, it's quite natural that localites prefer Kannada over other languages.
I completely agree with point 1,4,5. And about point 3- well once a Bangalorean who's well versed in both English and Hindi told me that- you should learn how to read and speak Kannada. His logic was- when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
ReplyDeleteWell, regarding kannada - to Amod and Amrita -
ReplyDeletea) Related to road signs, and general stuff - OK, this can be argued to some extent. Still though, once you try to project it as cosmopolitan, you cant be stuck with localization that much. The road-signs, even bus stop names, or the signs on bus, they are all very confusing. But then, as u said, romans / bangalorean / germans( same problem I faced there in the short stay ) prefer this, then let it be.
b) BUT Another point that Anurag said, n u seem to have missed - ON THE SHOPS. That, is not by choice. Its MANDATORY, by hulligans of course ( I think, coz if its by local authorities, then too much :) ). Otherwise the shops will be burnt down. Well, I dont think this is gonna make much of a sense to any of us !
Totally loved the 4th point.. Ppl have been crying out loud for something like this.. But it never happened.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the points are spot on. Though point 3 is understandable to some extent but not to hooliganism to which people resort to !!
Two points which i would add is better drainage and road maintainance... as it is roads are bad.. plus there is no proper drainage and shitty planning when it comes to roads
rain water harvesting has to be made a must, considering poor water resources. It has to be made a must with proper guidance from govt.
Oooooh, so THAT is how Hooligan is spelled ! :P
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