Last Wednesday was a fateful day for Kannadigas & Bangaloreans. Dr.Rajkumar, the ever-green super star of Kannada filmdom (Sandalwood!) passed away peacefully. But the rest of the story was far from peaceful. People turned up in large numbers to bid adieu to their idol and on the way decided to have some sadistic fun. What followed was total chaos, death and destruction. The sense of security of people used to living in cocoons was shattered. The entire incident is just a huge magnification of the chaos and destruction that happens daily in the city, though not in a collected fashion. While the barbaric acts are certainly not to be condoned, it is time the causes are understood more clearly, rather than focusing entirely on the trigger. There will be more such incidents in the future since the causes lie dormant, like a volcano waiting for a small fissure to erupt in all it’s fury.
The city of Bangalore is like a huge system that needs many functional sub-units to keep it going. It is similar to a living being, albeit one diseased in body & depressed in mind. Imagine snatching a favorite toy permanently away from a possessive & depressed child of great strength. Toys come and go & snatching keeps happening, but a permanent cure is to uproot the disease itself! What ails the city? That’s the easiest question that the auto-driver can answer as well as the Harvard educated businessman! There is deep-rooted simmering discontent about what the unplanned growth (IT or otherwise) has done to the city. The quality of life has decayed terribly. There is a wide chasm between the haves and the have-nots. The haves take home tens of thousands of rupees every month & are rarely exposed to the atmosphere, while the have-nots take home tens of thousands of rupees over the course of a decade & toil from the mid-day sun to the midnight moon for a simple meal. Kannada has taken a back seat so much so that speaking the language is considered shameful in many posh settings. There is also the larger issue of lack of public idols. The masses rarely have an individual in a position of power that they can look up to and aspire to emulate. This is a direct fallout of the corrupt system entrenched with money laundering politicians.
Well, what can be done then? Proactive and wise developmental plans have to be set in motion and completed on time. Reservation and such hare-brained ideas have to be shelved. Judicial system with corrupt rotten judges has to be revamped. Focus has to shift on improving the life of common people without neglecting high-end development. There is a long wish list that’s easier said than done. While my complete sympathies rest with the people affected adversely, this sort of thing will continue to happen. The system gets what it gives. The law of karma is brutal and operates collectively too. As such, I have no sympathies for the system, of which I too am a part, but not in a position of influence or power to do much about it!
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8 comments:
There is already talk among the youth today to leave bangalore forever or better,to retire by the age of 30-35!
By the way, I finally got to see Malleshwaram. Super place to live!
On Thursday, day following Dr.R's death, the city was like the former pensioner's paradise! Youth may keep talking but Blore's 'charm' will keep them here!
When you come to Malleswaram do gimme a call on my cell..I'll show you around & let's meet up after so long.
huh?????
so u finally got a cell?
Excellent thoughts, Anand!
In fact, your other posts are also very good. I haven't been keeping a track at all. This mistake will be rectified with immediate effect ;)
Anand,
Hope all is well. This is our first communication in six years. Im Ashok Mallya. I am guessing you might take a while to remember me. Anyway, here are my two cents.
I found it odd that you mention about Kannada in this post about the deterioration of public services and social morale in Bangalore. I honestly believe that for us to grow as a people, we should learn to treat all languages with equal respect. I agree completely that nobody should be ashamed to speak any language. But in a multi-lingual democracy like India, it would be unfair to criticize someone in Bangalore for not speaking in Kannada.
I was born and lived for 22 years in Karnataka, where the official language was totally different from my native tongue. In addition to Hindi, Kannada, English, and my native Konkani, I learnt one other local language growing up.
My native tongue is spoken by a minority, but that is no reason to expect someone in my part of the country to not speak other languages.
Languages are beautiful, living products of societies and all of them should be equally respected. I feel fortunate to have learnt more than just one language growing up. Humor, poetry, prose, insults -- all these offer us wonderful insights into other peoples lives and minds, people with whom we share our contry with.
I think we should consider for a moment the diversity of the country we live in (actually, Im have lived outside India for a few years now).
I have been to Madras (now Chennai) a few times in my life, and someone there might have thought I was a snob to not speak in Tamil, but resort to English. Well, I know not a word of Tamil, and I also knew Hindi would rankle more people in Tamil Nadu than English would have.
Great reading your blog, Anand. Keep writing.
Regards,
Mallya.
Hey Mallya!
Good to see you here on blog world. Though we've not communicated, thanks to Orkut & websites, I've kind of been following your whereabouts & exploits.
Yours is a nice way of looking at the variety in Bangalore. A really intelligent & broad minded person has the chance to assimilate many languages & get a taste for many cultures, all the while staying in 1 city! For the vast majority though, it is somewhat frustrating to not even find anybody to converse in the local language... this is a reality in many situations.
My own perspectives underwent quite a change while looking at the scene from US vs looking at it from right here.
Either way, life goes on... & enjoyable at that :-)
-A
Anand,
I think you are right in that the ground realities in Bangalore are very different from what I see. I used to love visiting Balgalore to stay with my uncle in jayanager 2 (or was it 3rd) stage, near the pool. THe summer of '99, I spent close to two months there.
I have heard, in recent times, my friends fomr Bangalore complain about how the city seems to have grown beyond its means. This is sad, and requires a lot fo effort from Bangaloreans to get things back on track.
On Orkut, there is a group called "Bangalore's full, Go Home!" I found some of the posts by members of this group as fundamentalist as islamic fundamentalists, the Bhajarang Dal, or George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
What is disharteneing and downright scary is that these are educated young people like you and I (well, I always like to believe Im young :) )
I wanted to write a post onto that group, but I have to join the group to post, and I dont want to join the group, since it will seem to visitors on Orkut that I subscribe to the views of the group creator since I am a member ! :)
Most of the hate there is because "..these northies do not take the time to learn Kannada.."
Anyway, things must be really bad if young, employed people feel such bitterness and hate towards non-Kannad speakers. It was just this that got to me. I dont take Orkut seriously, but the presence of this group and the views of some of its members made a big impact on me.
All the wealth we are generating in India, all the scientific, agricultural, and social progress we are making will come to naught if our youth hate each other so much because of linguistic differences. We will be a nation of savages.
We are doomed if we cannot embrace diversity, since India has nothing if not diversity. We were not one country till 1947. We were made into one in 1947. I want to digres for a moment here, talking about the "one nation" point of view. Our current president, Dr. Kalam, loves to say that we are a peaceful nation, that we never attacked any other nation in our 3000 years of existence. This is a gross misinterpretation of facts though, since we were multiple small kingdoms, fiefdoms, princely states, provinces, and what not till 1947 and used to regularly fight against each other. There was no India.
Now that we have created an "India", and put all kinds of languages and religions in one huge nation, we have to learn not to complain about our differences, but leverage our strengths.
I write to you Anand, not because I have something against you, but because I value your feedback. What do you think is the problem and what are your suggestions for a solution? What can we do to prevent the rickshaw driver from disliking people who speak Hindia or English? Id be very interested in what you feel about the issue.
Hey Mallya,
About the Orkut group, I think it's a case of misplaced emotions. Because Bloreans are so tolerant, we find only 1200 ppl in this group. Any other state/city & lakhs would've been up in arms to set right things. People have a right to be angry at the state of affairs, but that should be turned into action. Unfortunately, helplessness is an offshoot of the biggest democratic failure in the world. A classic example is Venkatachala of the Lokayukta...which tries to uproot corruption, but has it's hand totally tied when it comes to real action!
An interesting post is at http://nychthemeron.blogspot.com/
2006/04/open-request-from-bangalorean.html
In flow of tonnes of money has drastically reduced the quality of life in Blore. The costs of commodities, housing, etc is on par with the US, while earnings haven't kept pace. I returned from the US very fondly to be in my home place. Now I often think of going away, though that's not the solution. Sometimes, things are just the way they are...Blore is just a mirror for the population problem in India & limited resources.
I guess what we can do is form more groups like Janagraha, Blore Ahead Task Force, etc which have done fantastic work. They need volunteers, & educated ppl can definitely make a difference.
Back to the issue of language, I never learnt to converse very fluently in Hindi. Despite my best efforts, I could never really gel & be accepted by N.Indians while at KREC. Same thing when I went on a Youth Hostel trek to Himalayas this time.. I discovered 1st hand how national integration is just a publicity gimmick. It takes many years of close quarter interaction to form friendship with ppl from other places... it definitely happens much easier with your own kind.
It's not hard to understand why. The first word you spoke as a baby was what made you most comfortable in that zone. Age doesn't wither away that warm comfort cocoon!
Anyway, interesting discussion :-)
-A
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