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.

Anyway, once I made my important calls, I called for my taxi and headed for the airport. I had a flight to catch at 1925 hours. And here I was at 1600 hours in my taxi driving towards the airport. It was a strange feeling. Though I had reassured myself that my friends and family were all safe, I was still fleeing. A couple of idiots planned a series of bomb blasts and killed a person and injured around 20 and affected the daily life of cowards like me. I felt really wretched during my drive back to the airport from the hotel. Here I was in a city a few minutes ago and was happy and suddenly I am leaving it and going away as if I had nothing to do with it. That felt strange.

Not only am I doing nothing about the current pathetic security situation in our country, neither do I have any idea of what is to be done to make the whole situation better. And that’s what really frustrates me. Even if I set out to do something, it is immediately brought to my notice that ‘one man can do nothing’. Yeah, that’s right, so why doesn’t anyone connect with me and we could do something about it. Now the logic is that: Terrorism is not something you can stop by a group of people wanting to do something.

The problem is that the enemy is not clearly defined. Some of my friends with whom I discussed this felt that we must address poverty and other issues before dealing with terrorism. I was in disagreement with that thought process. You can’t wait to uproot poverty before tackling terrorism. Terrorists will uproot humanity by then and thinking on those lines it won’t be long before they come to a stage when they kill each other and end the human race once and for all. Going by one estimate the World has another 500 years maximum to see human beings alive. The rate at which we are going, even 200 seems a realistic estimate! And I don’t think we would have uprooted poverty by then atleast as much as I would love to see a poverty-free world. So, let’s deal with terrorism at a level that we can actually deal with during our lifetime!

First of all, the idea that terrorism is a result of poverty is not entirely ridiculous but borders on that somewhere. Poverty is used as a hook to get people ‘execute’ the bomb blasts. ‘Execute’ as in place bombs, arrange for vehicles and accommodation, etc. The poor guy does not provide all this, he arranges for all this by coordinating with concerned parties as he is a localite and is trusted. So, these guys are just pawns in a bigger game. The game has been strategized by someone who is not poor for sure, who is not uneducated for sure and who is not technically dumb for sure. So, the real enemy is this. The brain behind the whole event. This brain is rich, educated and tech-savy. And the brain is globally present with its tentacles spread into every single locality of every city.

So, our first step should be to make sure that we get across to tracking these brains. It is very clear that the majority of them belong to a certain creed. These brains need to be tracked and their funding arms need to be cut off. Finding this is probably the toughest part. But I really hope someone is doing this. I have watched a BBC program where they once showed how the Interpol was tracking suspects of something that was about to happen. And when it happened on July 7th they could not avoid it but within days they got across to the guys who actually did it, the brains behind it and the financial channels too. I guess as Indians, we need to help our police in tracking suspicious candidates.

If we are only bothered about me, myself and my family, like I did by running to the airport in the shortest possible route and time, then I think I need to change. And I saw a lot of people do the same along with me and would assume that we would call it very ‘natural’ to do that. Okay, but then from wherever we stay we need to resolve to do something about the degrading state of security of human lives in our country. We need to fight the bad intelligence with good intelligence. Finally it all comes down to bad versus the good. Unfortunately, when the good ones sleeep, only bad seems to prevail. If these blasts don’t wake us up, I shudder to think about the next alarm!

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?!

Announcements to board the aircraft:

Clarity was zero. And since invariably the flights would get delayed there was no way of knowing if the flight for which you were waiting is ready for boarding or already left! I know a friend of mine who missed his flight waiting in the airport. He was told, “Sir, we announced that the flight was ready for boarding and even announced your name thrice”. His only consolation was that thousands of people must have heard his name! Famous guy, we teased him for a long time after that!

Luggage collection post landing:

I have usually traveled only with hand luggage, but have heard some woeful stories of friends and family waiting for over half an hour to 45 minutes for their luggage. The only instance that I traveled with some check-in baggage I got it in decent time. Nothing to complain. But this was apparently one of the major problems though I went unaffected.

Getting out of the airport to hit the airport road:

I would usually travel by a cab inside the city and once I have identified that cab driver, for him to take his cab and come out of the parking lot would be around 20 minutes and another half an hour to hit the airport road. And regarding the traffic jams we have already addressed that in the first point.

So now onto the new airport. I will not get into the specifics here. Just go through the below activity timeline of mine and you will know the problems.

Arrival into BIAL
9.00 AM: Landed at BIAL
9.20 AM: Sitting in aircraft waiting for aerobridge to come and take us out
9.40 AM: Aerobridge is connected
9.50 AM: We are walking on the newly constructed BIAL. Wow. huh? wow?
10.20 AM: Waiting for our luggage (What the #$%^& were they doing when we were sitting inside the aircraft?)
10.30 AM: Luggage is taken.
10.40 AM: Outside the aiport. Spotted the taxi.
10.45 AM: In the taxi. On our way.
12.00 PM: At home. Jayanagar.

Departure from BIAL: (Next day)
5.00 PM: Sitting in a taxi for the 8.40PM flight (considering the doomsday predictions that I got from people on getting to the airport)
6.05 PM: At the airport. Fairly quick time. Probably because it was a Sunday.
6.15 PM: Join the queue at the check-in counter.
6.40 PM: Get to the counter.
6.50 PM: Done with the check-in. Had considerable check-in luggage.
6.55 PM: Took the escalator upstairs for security check. Joined the queue.
7.10 PM: Completed the security check to meet a sea of people all standing not knowing what to do. I thought I was a smart alec and thought of taking a self-appointed tour of the brand new swanky BIAL. Half of it was not yet open to dumb tourist-like public (like me) and out of the other half a half of it was reserved for international passengers only. Ha! The only thing international about BIAL is the distance from the city. Totally meaningless for a Chennai resident like me to fly anymore.
7.30 PM: At the queue at the ‘taste of India’ outlet.
7.45 PM: Witness a squabble between the air hostess of Kingfisher Deccan (Anything related to this KF brand is a failure nowadays except their airline I was about to fly in!) with a few members in the queue.
8.00 PM: Get across to the guy to place my order. I tell him that since the KF lounge was not yet ready I was asked to use the boarding pass to get my snacks or whatever is the entitlement. Poker-faced answer, “No information from the airlines Sir. We are sorry”. I pay Rs. 360/- for Basmati rice+egg curry and paratha+paneer butter masala a water bottle and minute maid (my favourite orange drink).
8.30 PM: Boarding is announced. We rush to the Gate #7. The queue is longer than the available space. Sit down on a chair (lucky to find one I must say!) nearby to join the queue when it is shorter in length.
8.45 PM: Get into the queue and take the stairs.
9.00 PM: Waiting for the bus to come and take us to the aircraft. It was quite literally like standing in a bus stand waiting for a bus.
9.05 PM: Finally the bus arrives. And guess what – it’s a BMTC bus! I guess they were just rubbing it in that it was a bus stand!
9.30 PM: There is a storm over the airport. Can’t fly. There are no landings or take-offs. We are stranded inside the aircraft.
10.30 PM: Storm persists. We are sitting inside having done with our dinner snack!
10.40 PM: Storm clears up. We take-off.

Fundamental issues have not been addressed. Aerobridge, luggage handling, passenger flow in the airport, waiting area, eateries, coffee bars and cleanliness of toilets – everything needs more attention. My experience here leads me to believe that Bangalore never had the right personnel to man the airport. The same issues continue to dog the new airport as well.

On an overall basis, I feel the airport has been done well aesthetically. I love the way the a/c ducts are designed. The 100ft high roof at the check-in counter. The gangotree, Baskin Robbins and Kaatizone outlets on the outside. The parking arrangement. The colours chosen are particularly soft on the eyes. I just thought there could have been more escalators from the check-in counter to the security area.

The choice of shops inside the shopping area just after the security check is bad if you ask me. I want to know what drives this perspective that you need only lifestyle brands to be displayed at the airports? The future is low cost flying. You will have common people getting into the airport. Please have stalls and brands that satisfy their needs and thus increase the revenue per square foot of the retail outlets. Otherwise I don’t see the footfalls increasing. A business traveller does not have the time to pick something up unless there is an occasion which he/ she actually remembers! And BIAL, I can’t believe you missed this – where is a bookstore? An airport without a bookstore? How absurd is that?! Shucks! A traveller (business/ pleasure) will love to just hang out in the bookstore if he has the time. Alas! I must be way off the mark in my assessment of travellers’ needs!

For me to travel from Chennai to Bangalore by air, just does not make commercial sense. I might as well hire a chauffer-driven luxury car and drive down all the way and save 50% of the cost. But for other city-dwellers, there is little choice. My condolences to them!

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 :)

I replied:

Mysore will become another silicon valley and lose its identity :), im pretty sure.
I can never be that cynical about Mysore for sure! And would love to disagree but I don’t have the benefit of foresight! I hope I can come back one day and tell you, “Ha ha Vatsan, see that?! That’s my Mysore!”

Chennai retains its identity because the labour working in IT firms is largely frm in and around TN,
I agree with this. But there is a large crowd from outside TN in Chennai. A bad example to prove my point would be the successful running of all hindi and telugu movies in TN. Let me see if I can get my figures about non-TN population in Chennai from somewhere.

and chennai has close connections with TN, culturally speaking, chennai is an overgrown village.
Absolutely right! Totally agree! I keep saying the same thing to lot of people!

if mysore doesnt have roots with karnataka and workers don come frm the state, then Mysore will lose its identity just like blore :)
I can’t make sense of this statement. Do you mean to say that B’lore is the capital of the state with which it has no roots? Doesn’t that sound absurd? I am sure you can rephrase this so that I can understand better.

Vatsan clarified:

…in chennai there is a 30% telugu population, and a huge marwari population, even before the IT boom, who are an integral part of the city. they managed to blend in and assimlate with the city, i doubt if mysore, or blore for tht matter has such a diverse population, before the boom. in blore for instance there was a sudden influx of diverse people, who refuse to assimilate the local culture, then the city lost its identity. chennai is already diverse so it wasnt a huge issue, and as long as other assimilate the local culture, they will be absorbed into chennai. visit parrys corner to chk out the marwaris in chennai.

what i meant is tht blore is the capital, but then it should have strong ties with the village, which i don see it does have therefore when kannidigas frm the state flock blore, they will change the culture. likewise with mysore. if the average mysorean can relate the the rural lifestyle, then with an influx of people from rural areas working in IT wnot change the culture. but if not, then it is a problem.

I said: 

You are making extremely valid statements. I agree with you that the sub-sets of diversity in a city’s culture should get assimilated in an overall culture that the city already has.

Rural and the city cultures need to assimilate into each other to form an unique culture representing the region. Chennai has it and you are right.

But I am not sure if we can attribute this alone as the reason for the “identity-crisis” that Bangalore is facing or like you say “Mysore will face”. 

What are the other reasons? Why do cities like Bangalore face an identity crisis? Why should native kannadigas fight for their language to be spoken in their own land? Wasn’t the partition of states done on the basis of language spoken? Then why these issues now? If you can’t speak the native language of the state you are in, then you ought to atleast learn to live with it.

Let me know what you think.

What move? What change? What are they talking about? I don’t understand.

If you have been born and brought up in Karnataka and have learnt to read and write kannada then I am sure you are also wondering, in chorus, what all this is about!

We have always been taught Mysore as Mysooru ಮೈಸೂರು in kannda and Bangalore has always been ಬೆಂಗಳುರು or Bengaluru, Shimoga ಶಿವಮೊಗ್ಗ Shivamogga, Hubli ಹುಬ್ಬಳಿ Hubballi and the list goes on. The Britishers couldn’t turn their stiff useless tongues to these wonderful names and they changed it to their convenience.

And we became slaves of habit! Bangaloh began sounding cool and as usual “change” was resisted. But then sense prevailed at the Government level (rare! Very rare!) and the “change” was implemented. For my part, I was always wondering where was the “change”? And am still wondering…        

“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

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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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