Meet the new Banglorean that fights for space

Try speaking about the traffic situation in Bangalore and more often than not, you will hear, “Oh, this is nothing.”

Credit that to the well-travelled ‘new Bangalorean’ or to one among the millions of people who have moved into the city for better career opportunities from all across the country.

While I do love the diversity of cultures that have been brought into the city of my birth, the chaos that you see on the roads today cannot be credited to the influx of people here alone.

Thanks to an increase in the spending power and easily available loans, there’s been an immediate increase in the standard of lifestyle, which — on a larger scale — has boomeranged right back into our faces.

With no space for as many vehicles,  bumper to bumper traffic is one thing, but the lack of discipline, patience or respect for the neighbour on the road is appaling.

Take for instance, the big crash that one of my friends got involved in recently. The speed at which the driver of this car was driving on the Indiranagar-Koramangala Inner Ring Road was so high that he could not stop himself from driving into two stationary cars before him.

The damages, as you can imagine, had the reckless driver seeing stars. What was worse was his conviction that the drivers of the two cars he systematically crashed into, should have moved on time in the first place.  This, when traffic had almost come to a standstill ahead. Getting him to pay up for the mess he had caused, took a good two months!

It’s hardly a matter of surprise, therefore, when an actor like Abhay Deol points out the ‘sad’ state of life in a metro. “That’s not life,” he states, simply. While he’s building himself his option number two — an eco-friendly home in Goa, such a dream is hardly alien to an old-time Bangalorean.

The number of people opting to relocate to farmhouses located on the outskirts of the city are plenty. And it is only a matter of time before they too start thinking eco-friendly.