The then Bangalore - Lovely City full of problems

My previous post was an attempt to share the essential beauty of the Bangalore - as I saw - which we have lost. We cannot go back to that past now hence at a certain level its a useless lament. At another level, METRO can help us rebuild the old Bangalore essentially but in an altogether different form and that memory could serve the cause of fresh creation. But in this opportunity to rebuild Bangalore, I dont want to forget that the old Bangalore had its share of unique and significant problems. My love for the lost city is not an blind lament for an imagined past. Its worth walking through those dark lanes. Some I regret, some we can reflect upon and some can be laughed at/away as well. Let me share the most important ones from my stand-point.

1. The then Bangalore was an inefficient City

For most of you who lived in Bangalore in the 80s and early 90s - I am sure this brings a smile on your face. For others - let me explain.

Back then - for most office goers - 9-30AM to 5-30PM work meant - "Start from home at 9-30 and return by 5-30". Given the size of the city one could get up at 8-30 and yet conveniently make it to work if you were close to office. If you were a shop keeper you would open at 10-30AM, go for lunch at 1PM, take a small nap, come back to shop at 4PM and shut shop at 8PM. As a city, Bangalore slept at 8PM. If you fell sick or didnt have your medicine at home and you reached the medical shop at 7-55PM the shop keeper would prioritize his leisure over your health.

The less we spoke about transport the better. After 7PM, the number of buses on the road halved after every half-an hour. This when the service was sub-optimal even during the day time. Deserted roads meant that after 8-30PM a stroll on a public road was not a good idea. Lets not even remember our good old auto rickshaws. Government services were at such abysmal levels - Buying a BMTC (BTS then) student bus pass meant standing in the queue for a ridiculous whole Day - that too without a guarantee. I can go on and on but abysmal was the word. One had to live in Mumbai for 6 months to understand what one means by a functioning city. This terrible inefficiency resulted in a multitude of other problems that one can imagine.

From such inaction - Bangalore has gone to the other extreme. It is now a hyper-active city whose activities are beyond reasonable control. It is sad that Bangalore has not found its middle ground yet.

2. Bangalore East was Bangalore East and Bangalore West was Bangalore West

Rudyard Kipling said "East is East and West is West - never shall the twain meet" about the globe. But Bangaloreans took it too seriously and made the first half for a good 50 years after independence. The problem itself had its roots in the colonial times - the British directly ruled the East Bangalore and the West was under the rule of Mysore Maharaja. But this colonial past was playing itself well into the 90s rather we dragged it until the 90s - only to fad away in the later 90s not because of human enterprise but because of large scale migration.

Whatever was the reason - the cultures of the East Bangalore and West Bangalore had visibly different elements and some antagonisms as well. Kannada had its primacy in the West and English in the East. Worse the two parts of the cities were quite unfamiliar to each other. The only place the two met each other was at the Chinnaswamy Stadium to watch Cricket Matches. The East probably knew only GR Vishwanath and Anil Kumble in the West. The West on the other hand knew only Roger Binny, Rahul Dravid and Syed Kirmani in the East. The only person who could bring both sides together was Actor Shankar Nag - like he brilliantly did in his movie Accident and his TV Serial Malgudi Days. You can see the essence of that in Rangashankara today.

I lived 10 years of my life in Malleshwaram and 12 years in Indiranagar and hence I was quite a witness to this. The East not only was ignorant about the West but also didnt consider anything in the West as significant. English brings a certain sense of superiority with itself. The East hardly watched a Kannada movie. The West on the other hand dragged its colonial conflict with Tamil well into the 80s. Some its conflicts were imaginary as well - the West believed everybody beyond Richmond Circle was antagonistic towards its existence. This animosity was quite real and it showed itself on a few unfortunate occasions not worth referring to.

How this changed is an interesting story. In the last 20 years, a huge influx of people from North and West of India as well as North and Coastal Karnataka changed the face of the city forever. The demography changed and the old hegemonies vanished.  Suddenly it was about the Old Bangaloreans and the New Bangaloreans. Secondly, the next generation of Kannadigas are lot more in love with Hindi and English than in the past. What more - the average Kannadiga who has studied less than 7th Standard can speak also speak Hindi fluently today in Bangalore. For the younger generation, the opportunities in front of them mean the past conflicts are insignificant. Most people I know understand that life cannot be deep in Bangalore if you do not interact with the entire city, understand the kannaDa culture even if you do not know kannaDa. Yet another thing unites the East and the West - the shared traffic problems. Silk Board and Marat-halli are problems of entire Bangalore. Everybody needs a good Mysore Road. Problems always bring people together.

The net-result is Bangalore of today is far more integrated in material and culture than the past. And I consider Bangalore METRO as a big leap in this integration process.

Now - I am sure you understand my excitement with METRO.