I have been in Bangalore for 21 years, and since some bad things haven’t changed from the very first year, I think I should make a note of them and make a change if ever possible!
Everybody knows that Bangalore has been voted the best city to live in, in India.
This is sort of a late reaction to that, but I’m sure the people who voted are people who don’t generally travel on their own, but depend on either cabs, or buses or autos. Even so, it is absolute hell to travel by road at any time of the day.
As always, twice or thrice every month mom convinces appa and me to go for some stranger’s father’s cousin’s sister’s wedding. Appa and I have no option but to agree, lest we want to be subjected to emotional blackmail later. That’s the problem if you have been in the same city all your life and all your relatives and friends live in the same city! Anyway, Saturday evening, you’d expect traffic to be rather less, considering IT companies and other offices don’t function on weekends. We left home by 6pm and reached South End Circle(about 9km away) at 8pm. Two hours. This was after being stuck in five jams, facing about 200 thousand traffic signals and also, some biker ramming into our car carelessly and then saying “sorry saar” with a sheepish grin and ripping off.
It is so frustrating with buses and trucks driving haphazardly, SUVs zigzagging their way on a road full of furious drivers. It is so scary every time I take my tiny Scooty out to ride along-side those giants and trolls; I literally pray that I reach my destination alive and in one piece. Nobody gives attention to lane discipline or has any sort of morale whatsoever! When I tell some people to follow traffic rules, I hear them say “This is India! Why follow rules when you can fuck around as much as you want and nothing’s going to stop you?” The sad part is that it is actually true. Skip a signal. Nobody will stop you. Go pee on the pavement and see who’s going to stop you. Nobody.
So you’d think it’s easier to travel on a two wheeler much faster because you can squeeze your way through. That is partly true, but two wheelers have a few problems of their own. For example, try going under a railway bridge with a train on it, anywhere in Bangalore. You’ll probably see water trickling down your helmet, or perhaps a few drops of water fall on your hand. Or, in case you’re having a terribly unlucky day, you might just get the big job done on you! I’m telling you this from first-hand experience! I hate to admit it, but I got peed on while going under a railway bridge! Real human pee. I don’t know how dog or cat pee would make it better, but it’s true and it’s the worst thing that can happen to you! And still the entire Lok Sabha goes absolutely bonkers when one sensible guy wants to improve the railway system and increases the fare by 2 paise per kilometer! I don’t see how that makes sense. Anyway, if I talk about that I’ll be deviating from the topic, so we’ll handle it later.
So I always see these trains conspiring against me and making sure they’re on the bridge every single time I have to pass. I have no choice but to wait with other two wheelers for the train to pass. It’s the worst when the train decides to stop on the bridge. I can imagine the train doing an evil laugh and saying “Try and escape now bitch!” It’s pathetic.
Another problem Bangalore traffic faces is the terror of these good for nothing cops. It’s common knowledge that they’re absolutely useless. They don’t care if there is the worst jam ever, but they take enough trouble to go through the traffic jam maze, find a guy without a helmet and empty his wallet. I don’t see a need for anyone to wear a helmet when they can’t go beyond 15kmph! It’s just absolutely ridiculous! It’s outrageous what these cops do. I once had a cop enter the auto I was going in and hitch a free ride! I was shocked but what could I have said to him? “Get out this is my auto?” “Pay for the ride?”
It’s just sad how this city functions sometimes. Someone NEEDS to change it. There are a countless other problems I can talk about, but I’ll stop with a few now. I just hope Bangalore gets a good Corporator, who will fix the roads, make sensible changes in traffic rules and also I hope Namma Metro is fully functional soon enough to reduce congestion on the roads and save us the trouble of traveling by road and wasting time! On that note, I end this post.
