Back To The Real World

Well I am back from "My City" to the capital. I have a wonderful love-hate relationship with this city called "Bangalore". So coming back has mixed feelings.

Read a book which claims all cities suffer from schizophrenia. Well! Bangalore has to be a pleasant exception. A uniform city in many ways. What I like about city? Hmm... Unlike Delhi we don't have show offs here, those enfant terrible driving cars at tear away speed and blaring loud music to glory being their esteemed trait. Minds are better than Delhi and so are waists, guess that tells us why VLCC is not reaping a rich harvest in this city. Better bookshops and sensible book lovers - who don't dig in pulp fiction alone.

Language is alien but not people; they are not very friendly but pretty nice except when you are forced to catch an auto at unearthly hours. God save you then! India's GDP starts blushing at the shooting rise these meters show and to rub salt to injury, they would demands some extra top up on the "FAIR FARE" So top ups or toppings are pretty favorite here, be it pizza, recharge coupons or very own "making your wallet anorexic" loyalist auto meters.

What else makes Bangalore exciting. What is it that I look forward to? Home is where the heart and mind are, and yeah! Bangalore is where I made wonderful friends over the years, visited few exceptional people in my lives, eked out a living here for two years, cursed the traffic here which is legendary and is just getting better to keep its legendary status intact"

Strange it may sound as I crib so much about the city, so did my wonderful friends but we love to sleep in her tumultuous traffic , so that the affable heart can learn to enjoy, so that the intelligent minds can work wonders.

And its time for nostalgia to take a back seat now, let wistful thinking die down and let reality beckon. Time to perform in Capitol beyond my capabilities.
Pubs can wait,
so can quizzing clubs,
my favorite bookshop can hold on for a while,
and so can those who love me unconditionally.

Woo These Woes Away

As a child I used to glue to my TV set. I loved my cricket matches, Tennis matches and like all those typical children love to pamper myself with a heavy dose of funny cartoons. If I am not arguing away to glory with my friends in a field trying to better a Tendulkar, Akram or Bergkamp exploits, I must be up there nurturing my liaison with idiot box, a love which typically starts at a tender age and dear cupid can be kept on hold.

But then watching TV was a great fun, not because you anticipated a great episode or a nail biting one day pot boiler, it was more because you were kept on tenterhooks, will I be able to watch it today? Yeah summer seasons mean power cuts and much dreaded load shedding, and as a child biggest imperative to me for throwing tantrums. I used to be really crazy to miss out on some real eye feast TV was willing to offer but for fickle minded power to snatch it away. And then my father in his typical style used to run his hand through my hair and say “You lucky fella! Do you like smell of rain, bright sunlight , shimmering tree leaves , wind breezing through your hair?” As a child I used to nod my head gleefully. “Come on Papa who doesn’t like it” . Hmm and then came the smart retort “Well, Son because they don’t have to depend on these sarkaari babus , just think of horrible world if these little pleasures too lean on them”. It was difficult for me to understand and I used to shrug my shoulders and start playing some pranks to while away my time.

But last week as Jeff Immelt came calling to India and made light of a seemingly difficult poser from Pranov Roy , I was forced to think the same old story. “What should be strategy of Indian government for next 10 years Mr Immelt? “. “Nothing, Just focus on your infrastructure and let everything else take care of itself “Came Mr Immelt’s Reply. Sounds pretty in your face and casual? Think twice,. This is the truth, the bitter truth.

So in a murky setting you end up wasting two hours on a Banerghata Road traveling mere 5 kilometers, in a remote town called Chattarpur you end up shelling 60 bucks for a can of drinking water or still leave a god chunk of your younger ones to burn midnight oil literally. Infrastructure woes are here for quite some time and it a problem looming large over whole India in different forms. Time we understood and took comprehensive action to give monster a quick death, we don’t need GE CEO and Chairman too tell this, something we can understand on our own right?