Malgudi series -4
If i ask this question to my fellow friends, i am sure i will get mixed opinions. Some my say bluntly that it has already become, and then go on to give me a strange face indicating that i need to catch up with times faster ! some may say its soul is dying, but can be rescued provided we act on key issues !
I may agree or not with them, but definitely try to ask what made them to come to such conclusions ?
We have known that Bangalore as a city of opportunities , gardens, lakes, great climate etc; but is the scenario same now and forever ? We have known Bangalore as pensioners paradise, middle class heaven but is it prevailing or slipped to nostalgia ? We have known Bangalore in the recent past as the IT-BT city, Indian silicon valley and more recently as the startup city, but does it retain its glory even today ?
The important question in this context is what constitutes a soul of a city ? I would have loved to ask this question to people like Dr. CNR Rao , the most distinguished scientist and citizen of the city who says he gets nervous once he steps out of the city, but at the same time shares the opinion that Bangalore is slowly becoming a city without a soul !
It was a decade back that people told Kolkata is a dying city and i was taken aback ! How can a city which for centuries controlled the thought and imagination of the country suddenly die ? Are we sometimes over passionate in our criticism ? Or was it really true ?
Analogous to this many of my friends who are from Karnataka and stayed in Mumbai are always zealous about the coastal city, its composite culture, enthusiasm, liveliness, Inclusiveness and commitment to work ! why are these missing in many Indian metros though they have many advantages like climate, land etc; which Mumbai doesn't have !
How did Mumbai retain its Numero uno position as a city of admiration for such a long time and still continue to do so ? Why is the sentence "I am going to Mumbai !" itself is so charming ! What does Mumbai have which other metros like Bangalore doesn't have ? What is the soul of Mumbai ?
Probably the soul of the city is its people who are responsible for its culture, inclusiveness, liveliness and more importantly friendliness ! In Bangalore we don't have a LOCAL in which a shift worker can travel with a CEO in the same compartment so close that one breathes the other ! The BMTC is so divided that money can buy comfort in a Volvo and you are busy in your own mobitalk and FM !
In such a scenario you will never get to interact with locals who can tell you where you can shop for less, eat for fun, take a short cut route and visit a weekend hamlet in your own locality ! The concept of outer ring road and inner ring road have geographically and culturally separated the old Bangalore ( Locals) and the new Bangalore (IT crowd)
I sometimes get surprised for the fact that even though theatre and arts in bangalore is so alive hasn't done much in this regard to bring people together, wonder why Bangalore habba stopped, why we bangaloreans are not excited about anything much like our weather where as Mumbai gets excited and comes together for Ganesha festival and Holi, Hyderabad comes together for movies, Kolkata comes together for Durga pujo and Chennai comes together for its love of language !
In recent times probably we bangaloreans got excited for an IT or a BPO job at the cost of basic sciences which prompted Prof. CNR Rao to say what he said ! I think its time to come out of our comfort zones and interact with people, its time to bridge the gaps between the old and new Bangalore, its time to stop asking KANNADA BARUTTA ( Do u know kannada ? ) and time to stop saying KANNADA GOTTILLA ( I don't know kannada !).
The most difficult thing to loose is the soul and lets hope it is true for Namma Bengaluru !
If i ask this question to my fellow friends, i am sure i will get mixed opinions. Some my say bluntly that it has already become, and then go on to give me a strange face indicating that i need to catch up with times faster ! some may say its soul is dying, but can be rescued provided we act on key issues !
I may agree or not with them, but definitely try to ask what made them to come to such conclusions ?
We have known that Bangalore as a city of opportunities , gardens, lakes, great climate etc; but is the scenario same now and forever ? We have known Bangalore as pensioners paradise, middle class heaven but is it prevailing or slipped to nostalgia ? We have known Bangalore in the recent past as the IT-BT city, Indian silicon valley and more recently as the startup city, but does it retain its glory even today ?
The important question in this context is what constitutes a soul of a city ? I would have loved to ask this question to people like Dr. CNR Rao , the most distinguished scientist and citizen of the city who says he gets nervous once he steps out of the city, but at the same time shares the opinion that Bangalore is slowly becoming a city without a soul !
It was a decade back that people told Kolkata is a dying city and i was taken aback ! How can a city which for centuries controlled the thought and imagination of the country suddenly die ? Are we sometimes over passionate in our criticism ? Or was it really true ?
Analogous to this many of my friends who are from Karnataka and stayed in Mumbai are always zealous about the coastal city, its composite culture, enthusiasm, liveliness, Inclusiveness and commitment to work ! why are these missing in many Indian metros though they have many advantages like climate, land etc; which Mumbai doesn't have !
How did Mumbai retain its Numero uno position as a city of admiration for such a long time and still continue to do so ? Why is the sentence "I am going to Mumbai !" itself is so charming ! What does Mumbai have which other metros like Bangalore doesn't have ? What is the soul of Mumbai ?
Probably the soul of the city is its people who are responsible for its culture, inclusiveness, liveliness and more importantly friendliness ! In Bangalore we don't have a LOCAL in which a shift worker can travel with a CEO in the same compartment so close that one breathes the other ! The BMTC is so divided that money can buy comfort in a Volvo and you are busy in your own mobitalk and FM !
In such a scenario you will never get to interact with locals who can tell you where you can shop for less, eat for fun, take a short cut route and visit a weekend hamlet in your own locality ! The concept of outer ring road and inner ring road have geographically and culturally separated the old Bangalore ( Locals) and the new Bangalore (IT crowd)
I sometimes get surprised for the fact that even though theatre and arts in bangalore is so alive hasn't done much in this regard to bring people together, wonder why Bangalore habba stopped, why we bangaloreans are not excited about anything much like our weather where as Mumbai gets excited and comes together for Ganesha festival and Holi, Hyderabad comes together for movies, Kolkata comes together for Durga pujo and Chennai comes together for its love of language !
In recent times probably we bangaloreans got excited for an IT or a BPO job at the cost of basic sciences which prompted Prof. CNR Rao to say what he said ! I think its time to come out of our comfort zones and interact with people, its time to bridge the gaps between the old and new Bangalore, its time to stop asking KANNADA BARUTTA ( Do u know kannada ? ) and time to stop saying KANNADA GOTTILLA ( I don't know kannada !).
The most difficult thing to loose is the soul and lets hope it is true for Namma Bengaluru !
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