It’s tough to remain an optimist when you see so many structural problems around you.
I stay in Bengaluru. And on social media, I vehemently defend namma ooru against people who shit on this city.
My need to defend the city comes from two places.
The first is, I genuinely think Bengaluru is one of the best cities in the country, and “the best” metro city in India. (Even though Bengaluru isn’t awarded the metro status yet!)
I’ve lived in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and have briefly visited Kolkata and Chennai. I haven’t lived in Delhi or Gurgaon but from what I’ve heard from others Bengaluru easily trump other cities.
The second reason, I’m from here. So, of course, I’m biased.
But…
It’s getting tougher.
First, it’s all costly here. When I landed in Bengaluru for the first time in 2016, things were far more bearable. Inflation hasn’t taken over our lives. The rent was manageable. Darshinis were low-cost. Far more greenery and less pollution (if I’m seeing this, no wonder the OG Bangaloreans say 90s were the peak).
But now, the rents are skyrocketing. Inflation has taken everywhere. The overall cost of living is too high.
With that, the traffic is unbearable, dust is everywhere withs so much construction going, changing demographics and crumbing infrastructure add to teh woes.
The weather is no longer the AC weather either. People are installing ACs in their apartments (90s Bengaluru would balk at that!). The summer has become unbearable. The water crisis gets real in April-May months.
Despite all that, I used to remain hopeful. These are modern city problems. You can’t escape those.
However, the bigger criticism from me is the – power cuts!
I know, it’s not as big a problem as changing climate, water crisis, sky-high rent, or insane traffic.
Yet, it is a bigger issue. The other issues are modern city problems. Even the cities in developed countries face those.
But… power cut… is a poor country problem. The underdeveloped and developing nations issue is caused by poor infrastructure, corrupt administration, and apathetic society.
I’m not talking about 30min or 1hr powercuts once in a while. You can forgive those with some fuse bursts, malfunctions, repair works.
I’m talking about 2-3 hours of power cut daily in a “posh” locality of the town.
Ofcourse the “posh” people have UPS setup so they’re apathetic to this. But those who don’t will start to understand, even the namma ooru fans like me, that perhaps Bengaluru isn’t the OG anymore.
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