Still my favourite city

Subir Roy: Still my favourite city
OFFBEAT
Subir Roy / New Delhi November 19, 2008, 0:46 IST

Bangalore’s traffic is not what it used to be, I thought. Better set aside a good one and a half hours to travel the 12 km back home via the bank at the city centre. But trouble was clearly visible as I viewed R V Road from the top of the rise at the Lal Bagh gate. It was stalled cars and cars as far as the eye could see.


It will eventually pass, I thought; mid-day is not the peak hour and I have patience, which at times gets the wife all impatient. But something unique was in store for me. It took an hour and a half to get to the flyover that connects the road to Residency Road that takes you to the heart of town.

Never mind, I am almost there, I thought. But what made me dull and almost sleepy (I was determined not to get angry) was the one hour it took to traverse the single flyover. By the time I got to the banks it was past the Saturday closing time. It had taken me three hours to cover at most six kilometres. Never in my life had I been in a jam for three hours and I have seen some pretty decent jams in my life.

The papers the next morning explained. The municipal corporation had decided to quickly fix a storm water drain and closed Residency Road near its key intersection with Brigade Road. The traffic police very kindly diverted the weekend traffic to the city centre to nearby roads which are really lanes. What was mystifying was that the policemen all over town, who carry walky talkies, could easily have diverted traffic far ahead of the jam by warning people: don't be crazy and try to get to Residency Road, find another route to wherever you are going.

Things have been getting particularly trying lately. First came the unannounced power cuts, then the official announcement that the power situation was terrible and there would be four hours of cuts a day in the city. Why at this time of the year when the good rains this year have surely filled up the reservoirs that give the state its bounty of hydro power? Serious power cuts happen in the months before the monsoon comes as the reservoirs run dry.

But it seems that the gods have been particularly mischievous this year. It has rained everywhere except the catchment areas of the reservoirs, say the authorities. Yes it challenges disbelief but don’t we know that global warming is making the weather so very capricious? Maybe.

The traffic and the power cuts are taking a bit of time to digest as they are somewhat new in their intensity. What people in the city have come to live with is water shortage. As inflation has risen, the authorities have very kindly cut my water bill, from around Rs 600 a month six years ago to Rs 200 now. The saving in the water supply bill is naturally made up by the water tanker bill. We are not going totally broke because our family is getting smaller and smaller. First the children went to college and now the full-time maid is also gone.

In a despondent mood I was getting ready to confess to the wife that well, this is still a great city though life in it is getting a bit frayed at the edges. But the last few days have suddenly lifted the mood. All around us, the tabebuia tree has exploded in colour and it is breathtaking. Every bunch of blossoms is like a bouquet and there are hundreds of them which have almost totally hidden the leaves of trees. A pink and purple haze greets you every so often, making you forget all your favourite gripes.

These trees are a foreign specie and have been planted all over the city because they are unique. They flower several times a year and in different colours. In February they will break out in yellow blossoms and thereafter in white. They were selected so that the city could always be in bloom, in a different colour at different times of the year. My favourite is the lone tree on the pavement at a turning of Airport Road. There is no other tree nearby. The tabebuia, minus its flowers, is a small, unimpressive and scrawny-looking tree and every time I see that particular one blossom amidst all the concrete, it is a statement of the indomitable spirit of nature.

In the park where I walk every morning, the tabebuia has a colourful backdrop, the local flame tree which has been in bloom for a long time, with its trumpet-shaped flowers splattering the walkway. The pink and orange together create a veritable riot of colours and make you forget the traffic and the power cuts and the missing water.