A weekend in (weakened) Bangalore

I moved my curtains this morning and I could see a group of men tenaciously clinging onto the scaffoldings like Spider Man and working day and night to get another building ready in this Mall City, an erstwhile Garden City. Yesterday I was in my friend’s apartment on the tenth floor overseeing the Agara Lake and I could see another fresh patch of land on the other side of the lake being cleared for another gated, multistoried community.

Again last evening when we drove around Indira Nagar and what I saw was shocking and appalling. 7 years ago I lived in the same city, the same CMH road and Indira Nagar’s 80 feet and 100 feet road was busy, commercial, but I could see the sky and there independent houses and lots of trees on either side of the road, but today these roads have turned narrow, independent homes and trees have vanished and when I look up it the metro rail tracks and concrete structure that filled my eyes. Why am I living in a fast expanding metro and complaining about development?

OMG! OMG! OMG! This is what I shouted while driving through the ruined city. My friend, a native from Bangalore said he helplessly saw Bangalore being ruined. I have read in history about Muslim rulers invading cities, plundering wealth and breaking down places of worship, but today it is not Muslims or not much in the name of religion, but in the name of greed and comfort both common man and politicians were ruining the eco health of the city.

I get to the newspaper and I saw an ad from Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on TOI was enticing buyers with waiver on loan processing fee, and builders were enticing buyers with a waiver on apartment maintenance deposit welcomed buyers them to a property fair in Jayanagar. Yesterday there was an Ad from Lavasa trying recover their lost brand image (Minister Jairam Ramesh recently stayed their project near Pune) by showcasing their green projects (afforestation and seeding efforts) along the Western Ghats. It is not Akbars or his predecessors plundering and ruining the cities, but our politicians, public, banks and builders.

My television set was ON at the same time while I was reading the newspaper. But what came on the TV made me put down the newspaper and think. Isha Yoga had done a commercial on vanishing green cover, melting glaciers, rising sea level and rapidly changing ecological pyramids and finally the ad closes with a child begging public to save the earth.

Is it happening just in Bangalore? No, this is the fate of every growing City in India. A walk on CMH Road or GN Chetty Road is pretty much brings out the same reaction – appalling! Industrialization, commercialization and mass migration to the city in search of prosperity and hope has eventually turned the city into a rubble, rat hole and ruin.

But how do western cities cope up with such every growing population and their insatiable greed. Do they tear down their heritage buildings and alter and ruin the architecture of the city? Paris has passed an ordinance in their Parliament banning demolition of existing buildings and altering the existing architecture in the city. And they have successfully removed all ugly, dangling overhead cables and found place for them in the sewer passages. When will our cities be clean, green, aesthetic appealing, clutter free, and open to sky? Should I secretly nurse the hope or nip it in the bud? Sadly, but truly India is one country (democratic in every sense - everybody is involved) where laws are not obeyed. Be it Bangalore Metropolitan Development Authority or Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, there is always money that can be paid to turn wrongs into rights and regularize your mistakes.

And finally what made me write to you was an interview with Charles Correa that appeared on today’s Bangalore’s Daily Mirror, a tabloid newspaper. I didn’t know who this guy was, and I put the newspaper aside and googled him. He is India’s foremost architect, he had submitted plans to keep Bangalore clean, green, healthy and clutter free, but the Government turned down his proposal. He has recently published a book titled “A Place in the Shade” encompassing all his talks and writings covering a variety topics from urban planning, public transportation, art, education, films to Mahatma Gandhi.

Click here to read his interview that appeared on the Daily Mirror
Click here to see his interview that appeared on Bloomberg Television
Click here to read a synopsis from A Place in the Shade

There is nothing much we can do to the cities now, but still this book may come in handy to save those burgeoning tier 2 cities. Finally before you think about your place in the shade read Dean Martin’s lyrics – A Place in the Shade

Now some folks play the whole day long
They think they got it made
But they won't get a thrill the way that I live
When I find me a place in the shade
A poor man word is never learned still I wouldn't trade
All the world and its gold all the treasures untold
I want a little place in the shade
Too late to bed and early to rise
Makes a man weary and cuts him down the size
They come and they go and their worlds fall apart
But I'm gonna cling to the dreams in my heart
Cause someday I know the years gonna come
When all my debts are paid
When my work is all done I'll smile at the sun
And find me a place in the shade
When the work is all done I'll smile at the sun
And find me a place in the shade