City Rating: Perfect 10 or the pits

CITY RATING: PERFECT 10 OR THE PITS
Times of India

IT’s official. A worldwide ranking of top cities in a quality of living study by an international HR consultancy shows Bangalore faring less than well. The list, based on economic environment, availability of daily consumerables, housing, health facilities, political and social environment, recreation and medicine, saw Zurich, Helsinki, Oslo, and Stockholm on top, and Bangalore placed way down, ahead of Hanoi and Chennai, but below Karachi, Mumbai and Damascus. BT asked Bangaloreans to rate their city’s quality of life on a scale of 10, and compare it to another Indian city.

INFRASTRUCTURE
Sandeep Khosla, architect
Hyderabad 6/10
Bangalore 3/10

THE contrast is glaring. In Hyderabad, you can see the change brought about by good governance and vision. This shows it’s all possible — good roads, practical medians, cleanliness. In Hyderabad, a CEO style of functioning with urban planners and architects has yielded remarkable results. Here, the city wants to grow, private sector and economy is booming, but infrastructure is going downhill. We are 50 years behind the West, and struggling at the basic level — we can’t find pavements to walk down the streets. With 25,000 new vehicles added each month, roads are getting impossibly congested.

A radical solution is needed — perhaps a benevolent dictator with vision at the helm of affairs for 5-10 years.

HEALTH
Dr Thomas Chandy, orthopaedic surgeon
Chennai 6/10
Bangalore 8/10

BANGALORE has many more choices in healthcare options, hospitals and quality. Medical costs are about 30-50 per cent less than Chennai for the same treatment. Chennai might have one good cardiac care hospital, Bangalore has many. Overall, facilities in Bangalore have improved in the last 10 years. Now, there’s greater quality, choice and more variety. More hospitals have been built. There are a wide range of internationally, well-trained consultants.

In cutting edge treatments and procedures, both are comparable. Hospitals here keep up with the latest equipment and technology. While Chennai has old established hospitals, there’s less innovation, as competiton is greater here.

PEOPLE
Gautam Kalra, stylist
Delhi 4/10
Bangalore 8/10

THE contrast between Delhi and Bangalore is huge. Delhi people are materialistic. They think about car, house, money — not about you as a person. They are also less creative and lack individuality. It’s a follow-the-herd mentality. People always want to be seen.

In Bangalore, a little bit of that might exist, but the Bangalorean is comfortable with himself, relaxed, laidback, but quite real and freespirited. The wealthiest people don’t look as if they are just that.

Creativity here is huge — everyone tries to be different. People here in the South have culture, and that is what defines our Indianness. People are shyer here, but not snooty. Once they know you, they are warm and welcoming. In Delhi, if you don’t fit in, you can be made to feel like an outsider.

WORK ETHIC
Ashish Sen, social activist
Mumbai 8/10
Bangalore 6/10

IN terms of time management, Mumbai is far ahead. They also have a better sense of punctuality and work output. While Bangalore has improved, it’s still laid back about time management. We might complain about infrastructure, but although we are smaller, we haven’t been able to log in and out when required. The challenges of working in Mumbai are quite formidable. We score because we have developed a culture of citizen participation in governance. The Mumbai citizen also has a relatively strong civic sense, which we seem to take for granted.

As individuals, Mumbaiites are harder working, more organised and efficient. Access to information and decision making is less of a problem for them. While Bangalore is pretty high on the India map, we still have quite a lot to learn from Mumbai.

EDUCATION
Chenraj Jain, educationist
Mumbai 7/10
Bangalore 8.5/10

BANGALORE is seeing a huge thrust in school education, and I foresee another 100 schools coming up in the next 5-7 years. Mumbai lacks space for its educational institutions, which Bangalore has plenty of. There, children spend long hours travelling, while few Bangalore students spend more than 30 minutes commuting. We have good teacher training colleges. There’s plenty of activity-based co-curricular activities. The number of schools
offering international curriculum are growing. The facilities in many Bangalore schools are the best in Asia.
Bangalore offers a peaceful environment, good climate and creative teaching, which doesn’t exist in Mumbai or other places, where cramming is encouraged and parents write their children’s notes. Our traditional beliefs are strong. Side by side, innovative methods of teaching thrive.

ENTERTAINMENT
Ivan, deejay
Delhi 7/10
Bangalore 9/10

WHEN it comes to eating, clubbing and pubbing, we are far ahead. When it comes to movies, Delhi is ahead. The interiors of their nightspots might be hotter, however it’s not interiors but people who make places happen.

With people, too, we have variety. There are call centre execs, foreigners, corporates — there’s a much bigger mix of people in Bangalore nowadays. There are different types of music gaining popularity, and acceptance of newer things these days. Earlier, people would say there was no spending power in Bangalore, but that’s all changed, with even kids earning good money at call centres. Bangalore is already happening. It just gets better and better.