Bangalored !!!

The city is choke-o-bloc with traffic. There are so many pot-holes around the stretch that connects Indiranagar ( where I stay ) to say legends of rock (where I hang out) that I've actually started naming them.
The hosur road at rush hour traffic can be a nightmare for four wheelers.. If you were to travel in a bus, the journey can get reeeeaallyyy long..(And yes you'd be better of in a boat) A window seat might do good.. But then again you'd end up counting number plates with a morbid expression on your face as you stick your head out of the window!!!

But there are so many aspects to the circumstances the city is under.. And to attribute blame to one entity ( government being the obvious one that comes to one's mind ) is not entirely justified. The government and businesses are essentially the two key players in this whole mega maniacal mess.

Indeed, the city's infrastructure was poor back in the late 90s or early 2000. The incremental increase in employment in industries such as the IT , BT, BPO, ITES whose prosperity is solely based on the headcount, and this coupled with a slow progress in infrastructure development is a recipe for disaster. The growth rate has been so high that apparently the increase in the number of jobs this year alone has been almost equivalent to the strength of the industry 3 years ago!!!

There seems to be an announcement of a company adding headcount on the pretext of value creation almost on a weekly basis. Any city's infrastructure (let alone Bangalore) would crumble in this scenario.
To start with, there wasn't a planned growth and this obviously has had a cumulative impact over the years. The hikers have graduated to cyclists, cyclists to bikers, bikers to "small car" drivers and "small car" drivers to owners of large establishments who in turn have hired buses to transport their employees! I mean if you were the only one traveling in your car maybe along with your (supremely frustrated) driver and there were 22,000 such cars on a daily basis making two trips across the same road, its going to be catastrophic. (Car-pooling could be a solution. )

Most businesses (ITES and BPOs) are primarily labor driven and they believe in the phrase "customer is god" especially if he's on a phone at the other end enquiring about how to minimize and maximise his windows or change wall papers! If these companies were to move out tomorrow citing more low cost destinations as their reasons, how would the huge loans that have been acquired centrally and internationally for funding expressways and flyovers around them be justified?!??

Bangalore has established itself as a global destination for services conjunctive with the rest of the world. To my knowledge, not many governments in the country were supportive enough at least in the initial years of IT with liberal land rates and tax holidays that the then Karnataka government provided. Ok, these companies may last for years to come.. But what is the life of any government ..? Five years if nobody throws in a towel or a dhoti?


Bangalore needs to consolidate its position and put its foot down by letting in innovative startups and tech companies which have the potential of creating large businesses or high capital per head! As for the infrastructure , our philanthropic IT dons and rustic incumbents of government need to work on a public-private framework so the city is not hated by the very citizens who came here looking for better prospects!

Catch 2wo 2housand 2wo hundred and 2wenty 2wo- Part Deux

There was no sight of any life around me.. It took a while to digest the gravity of the situation.
I had a solution..As unconstitutional and unhealthy as it may seem, maybe I could climb up the terrace and jump off and distract the attention from the car and save myself the embarassment..cause i'd be dead before anybody could take note of the car.
But as they say, death is not the solution its just the easy way out to utopia..

I went around scanning the car weighing my options. Breaking the window, forcing the door out or screaming out in agony did occur to me , but jumping off the terrace was easier.
Cursing yourself at a situation like this doesn't help.. Neither does kicking your car's tire in frantic impulsive motions repeatedly.
Some bachelor dudes across the street who were partying late night happened to notice the circus and pitched in to help, only of course after having laughed for about 15 mins straight. They offered me their phone and a number which apparently was of a 24 hours emergency car-breakdown service. I was able to get in touch with this guy who hooked me up with another mechanic. And the rest is HISTORY....