God! Help Bangalore

Life keeps on giving you a bunch of incidents for motivating you; for refreshing your thinking process, and yesterday something similar happened to me while I was traveling back home after an overnight stay at a friends place. I took a bus from NGEF to Benigamhalli … or Bainganhalli (Oh God! I still am not able to spell it). This is the nearest bus-stop from my house located in the area known as Nagavara Palya, around 300 metres from here. Palya and Halli, both in kannada means village. Usage I guess depends on the size of village and may be distance from M.G. Road, center of Bangalore. No money on guessing what M.G. means?

Oh! I left the incident untold. I asked conductor what was the fare to the next stop? There wasn’t any response. Again, I asked. He told me, “3 Rs.” I could see a lot of surprise element in his eyes which I later came to know why? Anyways, I gave 3 bucks and he returned 1 back to me, without giving the ticket. And it was really easy for him. I called him back and said, “Boss! Take this back and I want a ticket.” Very politely, he obliged. While I was celebrating with my happiness for being a good citizen just for few seconds, a sound from my fellow passenger sneaked into my ears. “Ye road bahut easy hai? Ticket lene ki jaroorat nahi thi” I was surprised and a bit of angry also over this person’s behavior. I said, “boss! I want ticket, that’s it!”

“Tumhare is teen rupaye se govt. ki building thodi ban jayegi?”

I was disturbed by this comment of his, and with only a moment of thinking, I could say to him, “Mere teen rupaye se building banegi ya nahi, pata nahi par agar har koi eisa hi sochega to pakka hi nahi banegi.” I reached home in next 2 minutes. I came all through the way talking to myself.

The young person seemed to be well educated.. 27-28 years old. Bangalore is considered a pretty educated city. And according to a recent report I read at rediff, the city has the highest number of millionaires of all the cities in India. It’s considered the Silicon Valley of India with amazing weather, and an IT hub.. There are many other names which I may not be aware of… But whoever has lived here for more than a week, can surely tell you the pathetic nature of roads, civic sense of public. And I, having experienced life at Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and now Bangalore, can say without any doubt that Bangaloreans lack civic common sense। Statisticians are allowing me to use the city as a whole. So, guys who all are feeling bad about it, don’t search for my address. :P

While I am writing this, I am recalling a bhajan, “Agar bhala kisi ka kar na sako, to bura kisi ka mat karna..” Though not directly related, but Sage Udham Singh says, “The least good you can do to the society is not to do anything bad.”