The Bangalore we wish for

The Bangalore we wish for
Friday June 6 2008 11:14 IST

Shubham Shukla

THERE are hardly any discos in the city, pubs and restaurants have to close by the 11:30 p.m. deadline; in between there was talk of soft drinks being banned in colleges, and to top that, open-air coffee shops were also frowned upon!

No, we are not talking of the wishes of an old grandfather. We are talking about rules laid by the establishment - the Karnataka government. The fun quotient of the city is quite low and the young, in boredom, are singing the song “All I want to do is have some fun!”

Many young Bangaloreans feel that Karnataka has a long way to go and can take lessons from its sisters in other parts of the country. So, in an effort to compare the services available in the city to those abroad, this website's newspaper spoke to youngsters in Bangalore on what they want in their city.

Self-driven cars top the list. Six out of 12 people wanted these in Bangalore. The reason being the “bad behaviour of the auto rickshaw drivers”. It isn’t surprising that most of the people who suggested this were ladies!

“When you are abroad and you see a car being driven on its own, you feel like pinching yourself. It is a good feeling,” says Manu Shrivastava, who works with Infosys. Think of the effect self-driven cars will have on the City’s traffic! Road rage will definitely come down - you can’t have one empty driver seat fighting with another!

Getting past the good old “extend the deadlines and have 24-hour pubs”, the new demand in Bangalore is for micro-breweries. But why? “Places with microbreweries brew their own beers and therefore you have a variety of fresh beer, not just the bottled stuff you get in Bangalore,” says Rupert Picardo, who works with d’frens Consulting. People with deep enough pockets, here is a clue!

The young, as in people in their early twenties, have a fetish for strip clubs. And this doesn’t only include men. Believe it or not, the ladies have the hots for strip clubs too - that is, strip clubs with men. Anshika Guha, an engineer with a leading company, says, “Why should boys have all the fun? My friends and I could do better with a few strip clubs in the city.”

The guys, meanwhile, are waiting for such a move with bated breath. Govind Rao, a techie, says: “We are devoid of such fun. It is a real experience. When I was in the US, going to a strip club was a once-in-a-fortnight deal with friends.” Having strip clubs in Bangalore may be a long shot, considering the moral policing here.

The next demand should be read under parental guidance. Some youngsters want sex toy shops in Bangalore. Though no one agreed to come out and comment on this, they were all giggly at the idea.

The rest of the demands are perhaps not as juicy and interesting but still have a point. Take pest control for example, a favourite with housewives.

“My heart jumps out of my body when I come back from work and see cockroaches in my kitchen,” says Rathna P, who was in the US recently for an onsite project. “In Phoenix, Arizona, the pest control service was just a call away. It was so convenient,” she adds. Sounds reasonable, considering that the rising heat is helping mosquitoes, cockroaches and lizards make inroads into our houses.

A socially active citizen and techie, Kartikeyan P Murthy, says he used to drive an ambulance on the weekends as part of a community service drive in the US. “These things are very organised there. You can choose when, for how long and the route,” he says.

Point taken, but opportunities are less here. “True, and the process is tedious. And you need to run around a lot before you can get people to give their consent for these things in Bangalore,” he adds.

The last one is definitely a must. After an entire day of traffic and dust, work, traffic and dust again, not to forget all the stress in between, wouldn’t anyone love to head to a stress-busting club? Sourabh Ahuja says when he was in Japan, he would go to a destress club that had a punching bag that you could even sit on.

“I not only got rid of my stress but some extra calories too,” he says. There are many of these in other countries, with various games and activities that will probably make you human again!