Finally, all the Bangalore bashing by media seems to have reduced. I really don't understand why there had being such a big hue and cry about Bangalore being so bad, like, it's the worst place to live on earth. The only reason I am able to think of, is that, Bangalore is infested with we IT guys who are basically cribbers by nature.
But, it was disturbing to see a decent news channel like NDTV do that. I had always thought it was an unbiased channel. A couple of days after rains in Chennai ( which was a week after rains in Bangalore ), the news line carried by NDTV was like Chennai copes up well in wake of rain, while Bangalore is still suffering. Personally, I did not find that to be the case. And, you had polls like the below in NDTV - 'SMS the worst road in the country'.
Let's look at some of the complaining that's been there:
The rain:
Yes. There has been rains, huge downpoars, flooding the city slowing down the already not so fast traffic. But, is any other city any better. For eg. I still remember Chennai during torrential downpoars. Places with knee deep dirty water slowing down the traffic. Even now, you see lots of news of cases where water is flooding houses and people not being able to lead normal life.
The deteriorating roads and infrastructure:
Yes. No denial about the fact that the roads are not sufficient to carry the traffic load. But, to understand the infrastructure problem, one needs to really look at the rate at which the city has been growing in terms of population. And unfortunately, every IT guy that moves to the city either owns a car or a bike, making the traffic situation worse. How many in us would be ready to travel in a bus. I myself have not travelled to Bangalore railway station by bus. I choose to take an auto, though there are plenty of buses available. If people are neither willing to give up on their comfort of personal car/bike and want the traffic to not slow down too, I am not able to see a logical solution out of this.
The recent tussle between Deve Gowda and Narayana Murthy has only been detrimental to the already deteriorating image of the city. But, from when did we start expecting politicians to be sensible. Politicians are what they are. Selfish, incorrigible bunch to whom, the sole purpose of any issue is electoral votes. In this regard, the people of Bangalore ( the so called natives - called so by the politicians ), have been very sensible. Such tussle and remarks by politicians would have easily triggered tensions and riots elsewhere. But, that hasn't been the case here.
One really needs to give time for the city to cope up with the exploding population and people's expectations.
There are still a lot of positives about Bangalore that people conveniently seem to forget:
1. The ability to get along without knowing the local language. Try staying in Delhi for 3 years without knowing Hindi. For that matter, in any city without knowing the local language.
2. The nice parks and greenery. You would always be able to find a park within 2 kms from your residence. And believe me, most of these parks are really well maintained.
3. The shopping malls and the cosmo looks.
4. There is hardly any problem of water - now compare this with Chennai where, in many places during summers, the only source of water is those water tanks.
5. You do not have frequent power cuts even in summers. ( Or maybe, it's just that I do not know because, I stay in office with generator for most of the time ) - now compare this with summers in Delhi where the power cut and the heat makes you feel 'Ohh Lord - Why me ?!'.
6. Above all, the great weather. You just cannot beat it. ( For a person who has been in Chennai for most of my life and a brief stint at Delhi, Bangalore is still heavens in terms of weather ).
So, next, before ranting on about how bad Bangalore is, please think for a moment if we are doing anything / willing to do anything to make the situation any better. And, also look at the positives that are still there.
