Tuesday, July 12, 2005

I do not like Bangalore

Its been 3 weeks in Calcutta(sounds so much more mod than the kolkotta),and with life kinda settled here for the time being(before i move to chennai in 2 weeks time),I have spent some time in analyzing why i do not like bangalore,because thats where i landed from.
For quite some time now,i have been nursing the feeling that B'lore is not a great place.Now,thats contrary to what many feel.Its true that B'lore is hip and is surrounded by a perpetual hype fuelled by the beeline of celebs,or the new R & D centres opened by big tech cos or the plain and simple BPO boom.
But the moot question is,what makes a city,in the sense,where does its soul lie?In its people,in its culture,in its history,where?
Bangalore,is devoid of any history.For all practical purposes it is non existent.And consequently,there is no culture that can be attributed to the city's history.But yes,every city does have a culture and this is where B'lore does not go down well with me.Bangalorean culture is so plastic and artificial.So westernised.i cannot find a single thing in Bangalore that is original except the patents coming out of Google,or TI or Intel.Take out all these and what is left?Every city atleast has a second line of defence when it comes to protecting its image.What has Bangalore got?
According to me the city of Bangalore itself is culturally divided.The young and the restless,basking in the software sunshine,and the old and the conservative,reminiscing the garden city's good ol' days.Still, this is fine.The problem is that everybody in the city seems to be aping the techie lifestyle.Everybody is in a rat race of the same mundane kind.The city's soul is bereft of the color,the charm that would have been so....fulfilling.Every one in Bangalore is trying to change,which is good(you need to move your cheese,once in a while),but some things are best left alone.

1 Comments:

Blogger Supreet Joshi said...

Thats a nice piece.
Plastic culture really describes Bangalore's culture. Also, the mundane lifestyle of the "techie" crowd.
Looking fwd to ur next scribblings :P

12:15 AM  

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