Mysorean

As you know I was in Bangalore over the last weekend. Celebrated the Independence Day by listening to the inspiring speech of Dr. Manmohan Singh.

One of my cousins wanted to go out to a Mall that had opened newly in the city. The ‘Garuda’ mall at Residency Road. Looks like a replica of the “Forum” in Koramangala. Just that this mall is bigger. Has one food joint and many brand stores. All the big brands seemed to have their presence there. ‘Bose’ audio systems was conspicuous by their absence. ‘Amoeba’ was building up their stall. Inox was running 6 screens and all full! There was practically no space at the Food Joint to sit. You have every cuisine available. From Katpadi Junction (typical South Indian dishes) to anything in Chinese, Italian, Mexican, etc. There’s a Shoppers’ Stop spread over three or four floors (I don’t remember).

Do I hear a “Wow!”? Well, yeah, wow! I am amazed at how many malls are springing up at Bangalore. Do all of them run on a loss? A yes to that question sounds so superficial considering the contagious growth of these malls. Big Bazaar, I am told, has opened another bigger one at some other area in Bangalore. If they are running on losses then such mushrooming growth wouldn’t be possible.

Such malls are a perfect display of Bangalore in its fullest glory. I felt totally out of place. I didn’t know what to do. I was silent for most of the time I was in that mall. My cousin felt I was so disinterested in the whole mall thing. Well, she wasn’t wrong for sure. I was disinterested, but I was getting this feeling that I no longer belonged to that place. The mall repelled me. I repelled the mall too I guess!

Yeah, I know that it’s a problem that I have. I don’t know what I didn’t like there. I am unable place a finger on that. I just felt like running away from that place. I somehow didn’t find myself at peace there. I will not go to any malls anymore. I didn’t find anything useful there. Atleast the “Forum” had a ‘Landmark’ where I could spend my time browsing the store. Even that was missing in “Garuda”.

The roads in Bangalore are as good as non-existent and the traffic in Bangalore can easily fill up all roads in three more cities at any given point of time. Parking, what do you mean by that? You will never find any space anywhere! Going around in Bangalore has become a pain considering the random assignment of direction to traffic movement on any road! If you have a sense of direction, you will lose it in Bangalore!

The Green cover is slowly vanishing. The weather is reaching extreme behaviour. The city is travelling towards doom at an incredible pace! Given a chance, I will stay away from Bangalore for the rest of my Life, unless of course it improves!

The saddest part is Bangalore happens to be my native. And it is sad to see the city disintegrate into pieces this way. I hope I can do something to get it back on track.

Tomorrow: Old friends are better than Gold