The Good Guys

Dodda Ganesh retired last week. Can someone in the first place tell me when was he hired? And then there is Anil Kumble blabbering “He was a great asset to Indian cricket and blah blah….”

Let’s talk about this city. Bangalore is a weird place. So weird that it’s got a circle named after Anil Kumble. Anil Kumble was definitely not an eligible candidate considering the fact that he only bowled straight through out his life. That’s me being the Antagonist, I guess. Anyways, people who have stayed in this city at least for a while would know what I am talking about. The early morning fights, the traffic on the road etc. etc. Btw, when I use the word ‘fight’, I mean it. I am not talking about arguments. And then there are autos, which make more noise than a ‘Sukhoi’ and the noise is probably the most irritating in the world. Why can’t these guys do something about it?

Of late, I’ve heard from few of the readers that we only hit out using the blog as a medium. Just gave it a little thought and concluded that that’s not true. We have just been presenting the facts, probably in a more Thinshark-ish way, if that can be a word. There have been times when we have praised something/someone for doing something sensible, but I guess we are not too good at praising. Hitting out comes to us naturally, especially with two of the writers being Capricorns and the third not requiring to be a Capricorn to hit out.

The reason for bringing this topic in picture was more because I was about to mention about the decent job being done by few people whom I have to see everyday. Traffic in Bangalore is becoming a global issue these days. Everyone seems to be talking about it including Osama. Now come on, how long can people talk about Pratibha Patil’s bank loan and her insane brother. There’s nothing new about a new case against the Big B. He seems to have got used to it now. So much that he is planning to acquire the land right opposite the Mumbai high court and this time he has decided that he would present himself as gardener who has been watering the Banyan tree in the ground since the last 43.67 years. No one anymore cares who the hell the coach of the Indian cricket team is.

Yeah, coming back to the point, the guys I was talking about are the traffic cops, who according to me are doing a great job here. Trust me, but for them, people would have had to travel almost 4-5 hours a day. Also, I can proudly state that Bangalore is the only place (as far as I know) where people do not cross the white line when they stop at a signal. The cops here are a bit crazy or probably they are being made to work day in and out. Even at 2 AM, I have seen these guys checking commuters. Well, one can argue that all this is happening to mint money from the public, but whatever the reason may be, one needs to applaud these guys for maintaining discipline. There have been so many occasions when I have seen cops switching off the signals and regulating the traffic manually. There is definitely a sense of responsibility and I think that’s commendable.

The government also, due to some weird reason, seems to have gained sense and is deploying cops in every corner of the city. Probably there’s a lot of money flowing in. Frankly, I have always believed that administration in this place is much better than most of the cities of India and also people here have a sense of responsibility when it comes to cleanliness of the place, environment etc. Otherwise, there would not be as many trees here in spite of the constant growth in infrastructure.

Quite a few measures that can be taken to improve the conditions though. But then, the govt. would not even give it a thought, forget about implementing. For instance, have no clue why the govt. allows every other company to build cars in India. How do these guys manage to obtain a license? Name a company and they have a plant here. Few like General Motors have more than one. Well, they are coming up with the second one actually. Every month there is a car launch…four companies planning on a one-lakh rupee car. Wondering what’s gonna happen when that’s launched. I just hope autos get replaced by these cars. At least I would not have to go through the torture of listening to the noise everyday. So many measures, but no takers and why would someone? After all, it’s a matter of money. It all starts and ends there.

Meanwhile, another controversy surrounding Pratibha Patil. Switched on the idiot box in the morning and there flashes the news “Few morons with absolutely nothing to do accuse Pratibha Patil of being an atheist.” Who cares anyways…

-AHAK