Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lal_bagh_gardens1794.jpg
Bangalore is unrecognisable today from the city I knew as a
child. My father who was in the Indian Air Force had two postings in this
wonderful city of gardens. Once in the fifties in Jalahali of which I have no
memory except the barracks where we lived. The second outing was in late
sixties when I was in the tenth standard. He was posted in Training Command at
Hebbal. The Air Force station itself was one of the best we ever stayed in. Our
house was on Eucalyptus Avenue, a lane obviously lined with Eucalyptus trees, a
wonderful old fashioned bungalow with lawn in the front and vegetable garden at
the back. But, equally beautiful was the city as a whole. How often we drove
past the Makery Circle to M G Road on evenings just to go and eat out or see a
movie. The roads were clean, open and lined with trees; the roundabouts at
crossings always had beautifully tended flowers and evergreens. The civilian
colonies had bungalows built in grey stone, surrounded by hedges and wooden
gates. Nobody built concrete boundary walls in those days. Houses didn’t have
fans and it drizzled almost every second day. Evenings always brought out light
woollens. When we crossed Malleswaram the strong smell of filter coffee would
hit us pleasantly. Also, when we went to the city as faujis say, my
mother often bought vegetables at the Russell market which was an organised
market in a proper covered enclosure. Bangalore has always been famous for its
bakeries and confectioneries, in those days even more so. The British had just
left some years ago and their mark was still felt. The streets used to smell of
baked stuff and my father always picked up naankhattais from one of the
bakeries. There used to be a drive-in restaurant, I can’t recall where but we
loved the concept and felt we had driven into a city in the US. The waiter
would come and attach a tray on all four windows of our Fiat car and we would
happily munch away at our dosas and puris. Nilgiris existed then too and
Brigade Road was open and airy. Today, every inch has been built up.
Then the IT
boom happened and the city and its infrastructure began to crumble and has now
collapsed. Our urban planners and successive governments were just happy with
the growing purchasing power and influx of skilled workers. They forgot they
would need housing, water, electricity, roads, waste disposal. Today, when I go
there which is at least once a year as my daughter lives there, I feel so
distressed and angry I grumble and complain continuously. Every corner is an
eyesore. Garbage piles lie on all corners. Construction of course like all other
beautiful cities in the past decades has been so haphazard that cities have
lost their individual characters completely. Be it Jaipur- the pink city,
Bhopal-the city of lakes, Pune-the academic city. They all look the same; concrete
jungles, ugly monstrosities sticking out like sore thumbs. You will see fancy
malls in the middle of unauthorised colonies or congested areas; with of course
people swarming like there is no tomorrow. Then there are the skyscrapers with
huge amounts of encroachments around them. And traffic? Well that just doesn’t
move. Nobody factored in the number of vehicles that would be plying. Of course,
Bangalore has a lot of fancy eating places catering to the expats and multinational
executives. But, it’s just another city lost in the debris of GDP growth.
The streets
are meaner, and there is much more crime, even the climate has changed. You have air conditioning
in a city which didn’t even need fans. How did we get here? Where are the
flowers, the gardens and avenues? All lost to commercial rape.
Source:http://static.ibnlive.in.com/ibnlive/pix/sitepix/08_2012/blore_garbage.jpg
