Twenty two years of it. My livelihood here in this city has still not been able to mete out the sense of what a well lived day in this metropolis would look like.
Silicon Valley, Garden city are all the titles that are passé. Bangalore is now competing with gusto to be the costliest city as far as my experience speaks. A cup of tea is now 10 Rs in hotels and a frugal meal, Rs 30. Public transport demands a hefty 40 Rs for a day pass and you can’t get into an Auto rickshaw without 20 Rs and an extra 3 bucks gratuity for the driver. Life is now no easier even for middle class families.
Some of the quirky aspects of life in this city are hilarious as well….
Walk along the roadsides in the evening and you can find retail shops displaying wide banners at their shopfronts like-“ Introducing the oil that isn’t Oily!” To give more flair to the suavity, there are wineshops displaying crazy brand names like “DIRECTOR”S SPECIAL” and what more “ TEACHER”S CHOICE” ! Okay! Is this a new strategy to attract the educated masses to go home TIGHT( If you know what I mean) or what? How does the name teacher even remotely make sense to a brand of Liquor? The trademark registration office , in whichever godforsaken place it is, must have gone nuts to let out such otherwise charming names.
Ok. Leave the streets..In the apartment building that we live in , people from neighboring houses behave like they are from different continents. It takes much pain to invoke a conversation, let alone bring out a forced smile from them. Aunties believe that they are the queens of England while they try to pose off in English conversations with their own children at home. And there is hardly any chance to get to know anyone from close quarters.
Where are the days where we could buy a whole month’s supplies for 500 Rs? Where are the days when we neighbors joined for the evening tea and biscuits? Where are the days when we distributed bajji on rainy days? Where are those cherishing days of brotherhood with neighboring friends? Whatever happened to civilization?
But there is some magic leftover in the morning sunrise of this place. Every morning, I amble to the terrace to watch the sunrise. Cool breeze washes my face and I watch the birds fly carefree. I feel thankful that this is atleast one solace left to the metropolitan cities by Mother Nature out of sheer mercy.
