A city of dreams

A city of dreams
Aruna Chandraraju
All cities change with time but in Bangalore the change has been most visible and mostly for the worse. Traffic has gone from bad to nightmarish, trees are fewer, civic amenities have deteriorated, and temperature have risen.


For many, Bangalore been the city of promise and dream-fulfilment. A city where fortunes have been made by entrepreneurs and techies in software, where BPO has meant big salaries for even less-educated small-towners, and where huge profits have been made from the consumer boom. Yet, for those who lived in the graceful old world Bangalore was and those locals who missed out on the boom benefiting in no way from it, it feels a little like a paradise lost.

We asked author Shashi Deshpande to comment on this. She is a true-blue Bangalorean having lived here for the past 51 years. And, as accomplished writer, she is an articulate, objective commentator on all things Bangalore.

Shashi says: "All cities change with time but in Bangalore the change has been most visible and mostly for the worse. Traffic has gone from bad to nightmarish, trees are fewer, civic amenities have deteriorated, and temperature have risen. When I came here in 1956 we wore socks and sweaters even in summer! In our Malleshwaram home, we never had a single fan! Also, where there was one house, today there are 30. I am nostalgic for the gracious, sedate way of life Bangalore was known for. I especially miss the strolls down Malleshwaram’s streets––fragrant with jasmine and sampige. In fact, most Bangloreans enjoyed the luxury of leisurely walks down beautiful, tree-lined avenues. Bangalore was then more of a town not so much a city. A true pensioner's paradise. Today, its beauty and grace have succumbed to industrial growth, globalisation, developers and builders."

There are people all over with loaded bank accounts but little sense of belonging, not connected emotionally to the city, she feels. "They are not rooted in the city, so they don't feel a bond, or sense of belonging. The apartment culture also contributes to this phenomenon.”

But isn't much of that inevitable in modern cities given their vertical growth and the world having become a global village? "Yes, I agree, but this constant shifting from one city to another and constant interaction with a world thousands of miles away--which IT and BPO jobs entail— takes away people's roots. Even the international schools are contributing to this trend by training students to enter educational institutions abroad after schooling."

Shashi finds little to celebrate even in the much-touted health-tourism boom. "Large, posh hospitals are okay, but they cater to a miniscule number––the very rich. Lower and lower middle-classes still can’t easily access high-quality medical care. We need a boom in primary-care clinics and tertiary-care hospitals for the poor.”

So, isn't there any good news, any redeeming feature about today's Bangalore? "Of course, there is. The money that has flowed in has meant a more vibrant art and culture scene in terms of more sponsors for music concerts, dance programmes, theatre. Many art galleries have sprung up and are flourishing given the greater purchasing power of Bangaloreans. There are more NGOs fighting for Bangalore. And all the economic progress and software-boom has made Bangalore an internationally recognised city. Several years ago, when I went abroad with a group of writers from India, the only city the foreigners recognised was Kolkata. Later, at a Festival in Munich, the focus was very much on Bangalore."

And what does she see as the city's future? "It will get worse. All this growth and attendant overcrowding and civic problems will accelerate to a point when things will go so bad that people and industries will start moving out. Electricity, transport and water will be the biggest problems."

Yet, for all this, Shashi concedes Bangalore is "still the best Indian city to live in. I feel this especially when I return from visiting other places in India.