On Sunday I was to visit my friend Aditi’s parents who live in a suburb called Bannerghatta. Located in the periphery of Bangalore, it has garnered concentrated development in form of multinationals and luxury housing complexes. With only one road leading out, there is a traffic bottleneck when attempting to travel there. As I stood on the doorway of the bus, the scene outside could have been described as a motorized exodus from a disaster epic. Various modes of transportation all traveling one way while the other side of the road remained clear. Any calmness that remained was drowned by incessant horns that refuse to stop along with a non adherence to lanes. The extremes were such that it would be impossible to even open the door more than an inch, never mind getting out. Waiting in the bus, I got so bored that I decided to walk a while. The day was nice and I knew that the bus would stay on the side of the road as the conductor would attempt to pack as much people in the bus he could, with stoppage only if the bus collapsed because of the weight (surprisingly that does not happen). After passing the signal the traffic cleared up for a while and I caught the bus again; with my place of travel, the vicarious hand rail at the back of the bus where my body lingers in the space between being inside and outside the bus readily available.
I was to be there at 12:30 but arrived one hour late thanks to the traffic and attempting to find my way. Once there I could have been easily said to be transported to another country. The building, made as a replica of one in Canada or Hong Kong had about 1000 apartments with spacious setting. There was parking both at the underground level and on the street, with empty and clean roads devoid of any traffic or trash. A tennis court and great view of trees and fauna made it feel like I was really in another place. As I had lunch we talked about a range of topics from infrastructure to politics, I thought of the changes India was going through in terms of development.
Just outside, looking from the balcony, another complex with 2000 apartments was standing ready. With such developments it becomes easy to see India in different lenses, ranging from a country that still is not able to provide adequate resources, to one that boasts of extra-ordinary development. The hope is to incorporate both elements and both acknowledge and provide a balanced view of the country. After a great conversation and lunch, in the evening it was time to go home and face the traffic again. Luckily Aditi’s dad offered me a ride which made the commute back relatively easy. And like that, the weekend was over.
2 comments:
I like this one in so far as it shows us what India is actually capable of...when you said...
"easy to see India in different lenses, ranging from a country that still is not able to provide adequate resources, to one that boasts of extra-ordinary development. The hope is to incorporate both elements and both acknowledge and provide a balanced view of the country."
Both do and will provide for a more balanced view. I am just wondering India has to do (in accordance with Buddhist developmental philosophy) is develop but also within its framework of limited resources...a skewed society India still is and will continue to be if we build fabulous towers and still have slum problems.
Having said that, cities like Bangalore, from your description, show that it is possible...
I was "anonymous" (that wasn't deliberate, so sorry)...it's like any society where we have our suburbs, palatial appartments...Indians are happy, and it may be easy to discuss change, but what about the other realities? I'd like to hear more about the not so developed areas on your trip, and how you'd compare them to the North.
Post a Comment