Silk Board
cross-section bus-stop arrives. It tells you to take a short nap now. The
twenty kilometers up-till Infosys office will take more than 60 minutes. It is
a hot day. So take out your handkerchiefs. You might want to cry when you lose
your patience.
Electronic
city was built as a satellite town at the southern periphery of Bangalore. The
British city of retired sarkari babus discovered new wiry roots. The first
world found cheap labor in the third world sleepy town. The eager and industrious
Indians found an opportunity. Today when you step into Bangalore it is clouded
with towering glass building and the dusty road. Sending an ambitious message
of ‘who’ you can become irrespective ‘whose’ you are. Big engineering colleges,
Thai and Chinese snack kiosks, along the unpaved walkways of the city make
space for those who are not of merit yet, but show virtuosity to trudge and
work hard favored by their luck. The Indian Silicon Valley ensconces the
unworthy simply with a spirit of bad governance that gets lost visibly in the
tedium of day-to-day ideas of growth.
Step down
from your office, wear your pollution mask and hiking shoes, a footpath is
difficult to find. Better, call a cab, the Uber has special rates for short
distances and frequent travels. Twice a day, morning and evening Rs. 30/- per
ride for an executive or a student. Pay later with a credit card. It promises
to help you reach your destination.
Try to go
from here to there, your side of the road to the other across the road. The
absent underpasses and the obscure over bridge are the pinnacle of human un-imagination.
The road divider sees two 1 feet grills on either side. Young women and the
old, in sarees and salwar, pant-suit and hijab hop over, one limb each with
tilted knees, sideways one at a time. Mothers help sons, sons help sisters,
sisters help father and father helps grandmothers. It is a family retinue, a
morning routine, an evening serenade.
The city
remains dreamy slow with fiber connections underground. The city is not all
that dreary. Other side of the road the metro pillars up from the depth of your
desires to the height it tries to reach. The design is the future, the future
may not be attuned to your design. Catch the cab and reach your home, now you
are safe until next time you meet again.
Comments