Bangalore Patrol: A senior citizen's view


If you had read my blog 'End of Kaliyug?' and believed, you would be looking for signs of this ending. You would probably place the efforts of TOI and Janaagraha as a sign that Kaliyug is on the wane if not already ended.

Curious, I attended two of the three meetings organised by Bangalore Patrol. I reached the venue on time at 10 am and was surprised to see that the hall which could accommodate 300+ people was empty. I was the fourth to register! The meeting on 'Mobility' started an hour late and by then about a hundred participants had collected. I said to myself, my Bengaluru has not changed, lazy as ever! We have a reputation to keep! Getting up so early on 'Bhanuvara beligge!?' (Sunday morning) that too to attend a meeting? No way!

But I was impressed with the meeting, the officials appeared sincere, spoke with candor and questions were dealt with due respect. While some of the participants did get emotional and angry, the panelists kept their cool. The meeting was very ably moderated by Balaram the editor of TOI. His humor was piquant. Questions were collected in writing and were passed on to the panel to answer. A positive experience!

Next day TOI had covered the event in great detail. Here are some quotes:
'Road goes, markings go': In answer to a question about durability of the paints marking the lanes!

'Seven lakh (..read Million), two taxi stands': It is well known that you cannot just hail a Taxi in Bengaluru and hop in. There is a ritual to book a Taxi and if it is for a short distance you may as well forget it. They may say yes but will not turn up or call at the last minute to say there are no taxis! But the renegade taxis were not discussed in the meeting.

The janata mostly depend on buses and autos. I have yet to dare to take a bus and auto drivers are another story! A voluminous one as they are a law unto themselves. The rude behaviour of auto drivers was discussed and the solution mooted is to add more autos to teach the unionised auto drivers a lesson. Keeping them hungry seemed to be the only way. Obviously the law abiding auto drivers will have to work harder and the 'rowdy' types will hopefully move on to more lucrative territories.

I met a person at the meeting and he had a novel idea about dealing with auto drivers who refused a passenger. Keep a small bottle of red paint and spray on the errant auto (surreptiously!) and once marked police could take action! Interesting possibilities!

Not all auto drivers are bad! I saw a driver getting out of his auto at a junction to give a disabled beggar a rupee. I am happy Commissioner Bhasker Rao threw a new light on the poor auto driver. He said most drivers are at the mercy of loan sharks as Banks do no give them loans and they hardly make ends meet! I believe former CM late Devaraj Urs used to help auto drivers, but now they are a neglected lot. Wish Ratan Tata, who recently donated to Harvard, would give them loans to buy a Nano!

'Parking before congestion fee' ..'Bangalore will soon get 25 multilevel parking lots': All about initiatives taken both to discourage and encourage cars coming into the inner city.

'Here comes the Big 12': The news of bigger buses plying in the narrow roads of Bangalore is worrisome. Swati Ramanathan articulated my thoughts and wanted to know if there were any plans to add mini buses to the fleet. I would like to go further and suggest total replacement of these big buses from most of Bangalore roads. They go about like a herd of elephants hogging road space. I have counted 12 of them together in 4 four rows near SJOI in the mornings! In fact Pasha MD of BMTC did not sound convincing when he said they do have mini buses in their fleet and will think of adding more. He is probably concerned that mini bus drivers will drive even more rashly and there would be 5 rows instead of 4! Anyway that is my fear. In Bangkok the mini buses were known as green monsters. They had a bad reputation.

I think I heard Pasha say that his drivers go through counselling and are taught to be careful and considerate drivers. Encouraging news, but they must learn to identify the hard core ones and work on them. Should ask commuters to snitch on the really rash drivers!

This happened to me recently. The buses in the 2nd and 3rd lane turned right blocking my lane and the 1st lane who had the right to turn right! Before they could complete the turn the traffic lights changed and the oncoming traffic just poured in regardless and we were stuck for minutes till our turn came again.

In the picture: Swati Ramanathan, co-founder of Janaagraha; Praveen Sood, additional commissioner of police (traffic & security); Syed Zamer Pasha, m.d. BMTC and Bhasker Rao, commissioner for transport & road safety.


I shall not deal with all the issues as they may interest only the locals. A look at the Bangalore Patrol website is a must for any city dweller. A lot of data is collected and collated about how various wards of the mega city are doing on basic necessities. Ramesh Ramanathan, co-founder of Janaagraha, who was present at the second meeting urged us study and use this real data to confront corporators and other officials about the need for improvement in each individual ward. In fact, there is enough data to write a book!


TOI had this blurb: 'Indian cities lack leadership. The mayor, supposed to be the first citizen of the city, has neither the time nor the power to steer the city's affairs'.


A picture of the second meeting I attended. The meeting started only 25 minutes late and ended exactly 2 hours later. Surely an improvement and the crowd was around 125+.

BDA commissioner Bharat Lal Meena, BBMP chief Siddhaiah, chief environment officer MDN Simha and Ramesh Ramanathan were the members of the panel.

A good mixture of seniors and ladies participated. It was nice to see my friend Srihari of Agastya foundation and KSS Iyengar active with 'Save Bangalore' at the meeting. Both are in my age group and it is embarrassing as I am not as active as they are with social issues.


N S Ramakanth was also present for the second meeting! He is my schoolmate and came back to India some years ago and has plunged into social service. His focus is on waste management and I wish him all the luck! More about his work later!

It was nice to see some youngsters as well.

This particular young man was upset that a basketball court is being converted to a parking lot in Malleswaram! It was shocking that the residents had no clue! The commissioner said an Indoor basket ball court would be built along with a parking lot! Hopefully the promise is met. But it is sad that it is no Basket Ball for the kids in the area for the next 2 years.

I really wish we find a solution to this lack of sports facilities for the average kid. I am afraid that the way it is, we will create a number of morons and zombies in the future. My appeal to all stake holders of the city: 'Please give back the space you callously, thoughtlessly stole from the kids'.


This mammoth bridge opposite Sophia school. The audience were willing to bet no one would use this and an escalator was proposed.

This old style bungalow is next to the Sophia school and I took a picture out of sheer nostalgia. Hope it remains this way forever.

I must mention here about meeting an younger person Janardan. The story he told me defines Bangalore. He said he was the only representative of Exnora Chennai in Bangalore and spent 3 years trying to make the city aware of the benefits of waste management. Practically went bankrupt and had to give up. That was some years ago much before Bangalore Patrol came into existence.

Hopefully Janaagraha and the group of young people working with them will not get frustrated and disillusioned. Their efforts to empower the common man and also hold him responsible is a valiant effort. A big ask! I wish all the power to Janaagraha.

I remember the Moral Re-armament movement years ago and the impact it made on the young students then. I guess it does exist but is not visible anymore. I hope Jannagraha persists and succeeds with its intentions. It is easy to be a cynic at my age and especially in India. Please prove me wrong!

Some good news!




I hope this is the beginning of considerate bus drivers!

A lot of bad news each day!
The pictures below only show the enormity of the task for the Bangalore janata. More are added to this every day!



















Comments

Gayathri said…
What a wonderfully informative blog, Nidhi! You gave so many facets of life in Bengaluru that I was unaware of.It is so easy to take a cynical view of the lack of progress etc etc,that one does tend to ignore the finer aspects of life anywhere - that in spite of so much "hardship", there are interested and involved citizens that seek to make a difference. Thank you!
That was very sweet of you Gayathri. It was great to see your comment early in the morning! Thanks!
VATSALA said…
Thanks Nidhi for a very well composed blog. I suppose it will take a very persistant and patient group to make a dent.
Ihave no idea how to go about this but the process has to evolve
Keep up yhe banter
Raghu
VATSALA said…
Thanks Nidhi for a well constructed blog. However disheartening patience and persistance may make a dent. Nishkama karma is needed

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