I am off to Chennai on work for a couple of days. The last couple of times I went there I was kind of amused at some of the reactions I got when I said I am from Bangalore. Most people ask, ‘So how is the traffic in Bangalore these days’? or ‘how bad is the infrastructure now’?. And this is not a reaction restricted to Chennai, people in Delhi, Mumbai or Hyderabad ask me the same questions. While in Sydney, Hong Kong or Malaysia even the cabbies say, ‘Bangalore? Great city, lot of IT’.
Am I imagining it or is the whole of the country focusing a little too much on Bangalore? Of course the media has a had a huge part to play in this ‘Malign Bangalore Campaign’. I am a proud Bangalorean and this city means a lot to me. Period.
I don’t ask visitors, ’so what was the last headcount tolled by the Delhi BlueLines?’, ’so how many days did Mumbai shut down during this monsoon?’ do you still have to carry an extra shirt for meetings in Chennai? has IT taken off in Hyperabad?’. Traffic is bad in all our cities – I was stuck for 15 minutes on a flyover in Delhi, the traffic from the Kamaraj airport to the city is also a crawl and Hyderabad fares no better. The other big blemish on Bangalore are the auto drivers, they all cheat – atleast here you know you are cheated on some proportion in addition to the meter charge, in Delhi and Chennai the meters are showpieces. Besides whether we are stuck in a jam or being taken for a ride by the auto driver, we don’t sweat it – we have the best weather in the country.
Come on people, this is not India versus Pakistan or China. This is a city you should be proud of as an Indian. This is a city that people know about anywhere in the world.
And above all please don’t upset me when I am in your city, or I will spend my time looking for faults in you city as well.
Hi,
I am from Bangalore Mirror. I wanted to know if I could use this post for ‘Blog Talk’ section in our paper. Pls do let me know if you are okay with it, my email id is nt[dot]balanarayan[at]gmail[dot]com
Hi,
I read ur article in Bangalore Mirror. Hence visited here.
Pot calling kettle black.
Nice article to shut their mouth.
Thanks Din. I don’t think there is any other city in India that is riled so much. I am tired of the barbs too.
Honestly, when people ask things like that , I get irritated. Sometimes, when people say, “Oh, from Bangalore?! Nice city!”, it feels good, but somehow it sounds sarcastic…..Is it me or is it how they say it??!!
Yes Suni, its the underlying sarcasm that irritates