The Dark Side of Bangalore

Bangalore, India. Airport Road. Sunday, Sept 12, 6 p.m. Vivek and I were driving, enjoying the ride back home on the deserted streets, which is a rare thing. Our senses were awakened by a two-wheeler navigating in a zigzag manner. It made us wonder if he was trying to emulate Rubens Barichello, who stole the show at the Italian Grand Prix. The brilliant race that we had watched in amazement just a few minutes back, we were seeing it in action.

Ground Rules for Driving in Bangalore

1. Side paths are not for pedestrians. They are for 2 wheelers to jump the long traffic waiting at the red light.


2. Dotted white lines called lanes were drawn by people to beautify the road. They do not have any significance in traffic disciple or regulation. Jumping from one end of the road to the other gives one a high.


3. The colorful lights at an intersection (only if ANY, many don't have one so there is no room for confusion - CHAOS is the order), as they change from red to green causes the last person in the line to start honking. Expectation from everyone is the people in front of them should have flown by now...


4. Thanks to Horns..they were made to be honked..what good is a horn if it is so rarely used!


5. Pedestrians ..its your road..cross wherever you like. Truckers ..its your road too..so what if a pedestrian is crossing and gets crushed under. One less in a billion.


6. Only the educated honk - it is not uncommon to hear people praise about the roads and traffic discipline in U.S or other developed countries. But it is the same people when in India, start honking. What happened to all that you learnt outside ?


7. Who is the most busiest person in India -- well every person on the Indian roads? The honking and zig zagging tells it all?



8. An Indian Driver's motto - "I DON'T CARE"

Such is the plight of the traffic in Bangalore. On a weekday, it is worse. For a 10 Km ride it can take anywhere from 15-30 mins to get to work. According to Bangalore Times, the city is growing annually at a rate of 10% and tops the list in the number of road accidents every year. We could see a considerable difference in the surge in the number of vehicles and the population in Bangalore. This is one city I have been visiting since 1984. Once called "Garden City", it won't take long to be called "Garbage City". Good things come at a price. And so did it for Bangaloreans. It earned the name of Silicon Valley of India. The IT corridor of India proved to be a boon to locals - yesterday's middle class suddenly had huge disposable incomes. Vacationing in Europe was only in fairy tales, then with time it came a distant dream and within years they saw it happening. A Rs.1k rent for a room now fetches Rs.4k - yes a 400% inflation in a span of 3 years. All this has led to greed and more corruption. We are all paying the price for it. Though the lifestyle has improved considerably, the outlook has not changed. Life inside our homes is a heaven and outside is he**. Why don't people wish to return to India ? Well its because of all this. If each one made a consicous attempt at emulating all the good things learnt outside, we would have become a developed nation!