Thursday, October 26, 2017

Life in Bengaluru….?




Being born in the city early 70’s, 
life was limited to boundaries of 
HAL Airport – Marathalli, Adugodi-
Jayanagar 9th Block-Basavangudi-
Malleswaram-Palace Orchards- 
Jalahalli -Peenya.



We drive both ways on 
JC Road & KG Road freely. 
Peak Hour traffic was 
1 BTS Bus, 
2 Cars, 
3 Autos &
 4 Scooters - 
few people walking around on 
JC Road. MG Road 
had Chit-Chat, 
Ice-cream Parlor, 
Lake View & few restaurants. 
Within city, any point to point 
max commute time was 30 mins by a scooter. 

In Rs 7/-  you could have a wholesome meal, 
Sampige Road in Malleswaram 
was 2 way street from Central to Mallewaram Circle.
 Funny facts:

I have not seen a circle in Malleswaram 4th cross -
but it’s called Malleswaram Circle.
If you tell an auto driver “4th Block”, 
by default he would take you to 
Jayanagar 4th Block.
East of Vidhana Soudha or 
GPO, everything was “Cantonment” area.



Walking on Brigade Road - 
M.G.Road was a proud moment, 
driving in a car was like getting the Guard of Honor.

Though 2 Bhashyam circles exist, the 
Bhashyam Circle was by default 
Sadashivanagar Bhashyam Circle.
And These Government Organizations 
were headquartered in this beautiful City.



HAL - Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. And the adjoining HAL Airport.

HMT- Hindustan Machine tools and the adjoining HMT Watch Factory.

BEL – Bharath Electronics Limited 

BHEL – Bharath Heavy Electrical Limited 

BEML - Bharat Earth Movers Limited

DRDO - Defense Research and Development Organization.

NAL - National Aerospace Laboratories.

NGEF - New Government Electrical Factory

ISRO - Indian Space Research Organization.

ISAC - ISRO Satellite Centre.

IISc - Indian Institute of Science.

Air force Stations in Yelahanka, Jalahalli, 
Command Hospital.

Army Base and the Cantonment Region.

And many more such traditional high-quality Government organizations.

During Venus Circus fire accident, 
animals were secured near the Railway station. 
I happened to pass by the next morning en route from 
Jalahalli to Banashankari & was curious to see all kinds of 
wild animals tethered around Mysore side railway station.

Sweet Bun - 10 Paisa, 
Cream Puff - 25 Paisa, 
Veg Puff - 35 Paisa, 
Toast - 15 Paisa, 
Bread Loaf - 50 Paisa, 
Cinema in GALAXY – Rs 3/-.



In 1989, I started to work for a 
salary Rs, 450/- per month 
I'm happy because I'm a fresher’s
in the job and I'm only 18 years old 
and I want to learn full so 
salary is not a preference for me.

Enjoying with friends roaming the 
city end to end on Sundays in a 
Rs 5/- BTS bus pass, 
Life was pretty much peaceful.

The things I have witnessed 
from the past 25 years are
 heart-wrenching when 
I think about how the city 
spiraled its way down into chaos.

Now, how did the culture of 
Bangalore become so sophisticated? 
I am talking before the IT Boom in the city.
You can see that these organizations 
that I have mentioned above which 
took half of Bangalore’s area then, 
were highly technical and specialized.
The employees in each of these organizations, 
at each level, were highly educated, 
highly sophisticated and highly technical. 
And I am talking this, way back in the 
1970s and 1980s. So, the entire crowd 
which were these Government employees 
were of upper middle class with sophistication.
And so were their children.

With highly educated parents 
and an enabling surrounding, 
the children also became of a different class.

And that’s when Bangalore became the 
Rock & Pop Capital of India. In the early 90s.

This was before the in-migration of people to 
Bangalore had started to take place in a large scale.

Then, the IT Boom happened

Infosys

Wipro

TCS

Electronic City

ITPL

Whitefield Area

Silk Board Area

Startups

And what not.


This is when every year, 
sometime between April and May; 
citizens all over urban India get started 
pouring in massively for employment into Bangalore.

Till the end of 1999, the home-grown 
Bangaloreans had lived in an era of true 
sophistication and had the tag of true Bangaloreans.

From 2001, started the IT Revolution. 
With it came the BPO revolution and the 
Biotech Revolution in Bangalore.

And with it brought such disastrous problems : -

Population increased from 
42 Lakhs in 1992 to 95 Lakhs in 2017. 
That is within a span of 25 years, 
the population literally doubled itself, 
with the same base resources.
Population is exploding, 
from 42 to 95 lakh in 25 years and counting.

Has Bengaluru’s IT boom ruined the city? 

Yes; 
IT companies came to the city because 
they felt the city was a rich catchment 
area for talent. 

The weather was great, a pub culture 
was developing, the city was 
small and you could drive 
from one end to another in 
less than 30 minutes. 

while the IT industry increased 
the influx of people from other 
states and the city, its expansion 
was not planned at all. The onset of the 
BPO industry led to an 
explosion of cabs on the roads.

The arrival of large numbers of 
drivers and construction workmen, 
created associated sociological 
and law and order problems. 

An inordinately high number of rapes 
are committed by drivers. 
Only last month, 
a cab driver abducted a young 
Manipuri woman from a public place; 
scooping her up and 
carrying her to an empty building 
where he proceeded to molest her. 
The incident was so bizarre 
that few people would have believed 
that it happened if it hadn’t been captured on CCTV.

With rise in population, 
and a rise in the standard of living 
and income levels, and with a drastic 
decrease in the cost of vehicles, 
the number of vehicles that used to ply 
on the roads of Bangalore increased 
from 6 Lakhs (4 Lakhs of 2-Wheelers) 
in 1992 to 60 Lakhs in 2017.

Where have all the roads gone?

The less said about 
Bengaluru’s roads the better. 
They are mostly inadequate. 
With builders running rampant, 
very few buildings have proper parking. 
That means, cars are parked on the roads. 
Pedestrian pavements don’t exist. 
Potholes are never filled. 
Traffic police do not have the numbers 
to control the exploding numbers of vehicles 
(60 lakh, at last count). Thanks to ill-maintained roads, 
it takes forever to drive even short distances.

Sadly, no one cares

The two civic bodies that are 
meant to take care of Bangalore’s 
civic issues are the 
BBMP (the Corporation) and 
the Bangalore Development Authority
 (BDA). Both are corrupt and inefficient 
and it really does not matter 
which political party is in power. 
There once used to be a designated 
green belt around the city in 
which no construction was allowed.
 Nobody seems to know 
what happened to that. 
The city has no proper 
policy in place for land and water use.

This sudden increase of vehicles 
from 6 to 60 Lakhs took a huge toll on the roads, 
the trees and the air pollution. 
To make way for these vehicles, more flyovers were built,
78 percent of green cover has vanished in a decade.
According to a research, 
urbanization rose 125 percent from 
2000 to 2014; all at the expense of the city’s 
once-famous greenery. 
Trees have been cut down mercilessly 
to make way for road widening and 
construction. Even parks are not safe. 

A few years ago, legislators 
were all set to grab a piece of 
Cubbon Park to build a club. 
Luckily, citizen activism thwarted that plan. 
Bengaluru’s human population is 
currently 95 lakh against a tree 
population of around 15 lakh trees.

“Based on age, every day 
one person exhales 540-900 
grams of carbon dioxide and 
one hectare of trees takes in 
close to eight tons of carbon 
dioxide. So based on that calculation 
every person needs eight trees. 
You can imagine how 
pathetic the situation is.”

That works out to around 
one tree for every seven humans.

Unplanned urbanization’ 
surprised me 
The reason is BDA housing policies 
and other industrial housing colonies,  
925 percent increase in concretization 
since 1970

The problem is that most of this is 
unplanned. Homes are built in places 
with limited road access, no water supply, 
no sewage lines. In most homes in the greater 
metropolitan area, water comes from bore wells 
and sewage flows into the nearest lake. 
Homes are not the only offenders; 
commercial buildings are built without parking 
arrangements, which means cars are parked 
on service roads and main roads, obstructing traffic.

“It’s disturbing to see private developers 
dominate government decisions. 
The norm to keep at least 15-20 percent 
of the city as open space is ignored, 
storm water drains and water bodies 
have been narrowed.

Bengaluru’s lakes are vanishing

Nobody can give a clear estimate 
of the state of Bengaluru's lakes, 
because although many do exist 
on paper, in reality a lot of them have 
been filled up and built upon. 

According to one estimate, 
Bangalore had 261 lakes in 1961, 
which had reduced to 
around 80 by the mid-1980s. 
Today, there could be less than 25. 

According to research, 
54 percent of lakes were 
encroached for illegal buildings. 
The ones remaining are in 
poor health, 66 percent 
are fed by sewage, 
14 percent are surrounded by slums, 
and 72 percent showed loss 
of catchment area due to construction. 
Even today, construction debris is dumped 
into lakes and lakebeds, a prelude to encroachment.

Forget the lakes; ruthless builders are 
even encroaching on drains. 
In many places, natural drains 
have been covered and built over. 
This is a problem on two fronts. 
One, the water has nowhere to go, 
which makes flooding a common 
phenomenon during rains. 

A Chennai-like disaster is 
waiting to happen in Bengaluru. 
The second problem is that these 
drains often take rainwater to the lakes. 
By filling up the drains, water flow to 
the lakes are cut off, leading to their 
drying up and getting encroached upon.

Sudden increase in the 
consumption of electricity, 
water and other natural resources. 
No wonder Cauvery river is being 
suffocated now.

With the IT setup, 
the IT software guys had a
 higher source of additional
 income, which they needed to 
spend in their free time. And for 
their entertainment, new restaurants, 
shopping malls, pubs and bars 
came up. With it more and more 
employment opportunities for 
more and more people.



Back in 1998, Bangalore 
had pubs for the elite, where 
true music used to be made. 
Current Shillong is a true replica of 
the 90s Bangalore. But now, in 2017, 
the pubs and bars have become so 
fake and wanna-be that the true 
Bangalore culture is being deteriorated.

Traffic. Imagine. Same roads. 
Population from 42 to 95 Lakhs. 
Vehicles from 6 to 60 Lakhs. Mind blown!

Notice that I haven’t even talked a
bout the weather till now. 
The weather part everyone knows. 
24 Degrees all year long. Perfection!
This is just a teaser till now, 
and it will go on like this for 
the next two decades.

City begin to die, most 
people don’t realize that it’s happening.
 A dead city does not mean that
 people are no longer living in it. 
It means that it is no longer 
worth living in.

In my opinion,
we have already 
reached that point.

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