Mysorean

25th July 2008, Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore, 3.00PM
I was there attending a conference when my colleague flashed the screen of his blackberry at me which had breaking news from BBC: “Bangalore, IT Capital of India, rocked by serial bomb blasts”

I was not so sure about what to do next if at all anything was necessary to be done. So, I just backed out of the conference called my wife and told her that I was fine and sat down for a few minutes trying to get more information about the blasts. Called up a friend who told me that there was one at Sarjapur Road. I was staying 100m from there at my friend’s place. My friends still stay there – I mean it is their permanent house as they say in this part of the World. Let’s assume these terrorists had planned these blasts a day before, I would be one person gone for sure as I was walking around that place the previous day.

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Why does anyone build something new? Usually because the old one had developed certain problems that could not be solved by incremental fixes. So we now move from HAL airport to Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL). Let us capture the problems that were faced at the HAL airport before examining the BIAL airport. This is purely from the domestic airport point of view.

Congestion while getting into the airport:

This was a two fold problem – one, getting to the airport through the traffic jam on the airport road, etc and two, once near the entrance to the airport there used to be so many vehicles there that getting out of your vehicle and making it to the security entrance would be a pain.

Waiting space post-security check:

I have once waited for a flight standing for 40 minutes. The average must hover around 20 minutes standing.

Lounge:

I must have missed this one in the old airport because I have always spent time standing! :D Anyway if there was one at the HAL airport then were the duds at the check-in counter sleeping?!

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In one of my posts, we had a discussion about the culture of Mysore. Vatsan compared it with Chennai’s culture and said:

Mysore will become another silicon valley and lose its identity :), im pretty sure.

Chennai retains its identity because the labour working in IT firms is largely frm in and around TN, and chennai has close connections with TN, culturally speaking, chennai is an overgrown village. if mysore doesnt have roots with karnataka and workers don come frm the state, then Mysore will lose its identity just like blore :)

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First they changed the names of the prominent cities in the state. Bangalore to Bengaluru, Mysore to Mysooru, Hubli to hubballi and so on and so forth. People thought it was uncool, would spoil the brand image of these places and some even went to the extent of saying that it was a political move.

What move? What change? What are they talking about? I don’t understand.
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Mr. K. Sriram, Chairman, Builders Association of India, Mysore Centre, replies to my post via email:

“Your point on Devanahalli airport is well taken, but it is not as far as you are making it out to be. As a regular visitor to the site I would say that it takes 1 hour to get there from downtown bangalore at most times and may be 1.5 hours in peak hours.

The 6 lane highway is at an advanced stage of completion and this should reduce travel time further when completed. NICE is a private company which is laying a beautiful peripheral road from the Tumkur road to Hosur road cutting across the Magadi road, Mysore road, Kanakapura road etc. And wants to link uptill Devanahalli and also lay a monorail on its median. And believe me it will be ready well before the airport.

NICE is also building an elevated link to the (Bangalore) city center from Mysore road so you can possibly get to Devanahalli in 45 mins max from any corner in Bangalore. The scenario from the current airport is no better as it is. It takes us 2 full hours to get to Mysore road at peak hours and we believe we can be in Devanahalli in 45 mins from Mysore road if the NICE road is completed.”

Thank you Sir for your clarification. That brings hope to us that the city is in safe hands.

Links:
Builders Association of India, Mysore
Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited

The new Bangalore airport that has been proposed at Devanahalli is far away from every inhabited place in Bangalore. It becomes just too far for someone just taking a regional flight of one hour. And the flight timing for most of the cities from Bangalore will be well within a couple of hours. It is plain impractical to locate the airport at such a God-forsaken place. Imagine the time taken to travel to the airport in your city being equal to the time taken to travel from one city to another!

So, what could we do? Since already millions of dollars have been invested into this can we find some way of making this a win-win for everyone involved? Is it possible? Of course, it is going to be the most developed and high-tech airport the country has ever seen and all that. So, can we also make it accessible please?

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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