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Friday, May 11, 2007

Bangalore Roads - Indian socialism in present day format

Lemme talk on my fav topic… “Roads in bangalore (bng/bang for short)”. Everyone in Bangalore has cried hoarse over the roads in bng. From Azim Premji to Narayana Murthy to every tom, dick and harry in Bangalore.

I tried to connect a few things with the state of roads in bang. I am not finding the root cause of the problem or the underlying cause. I dunno so much abt state affairs and functioning so I cant comment on that. Might write something on it when I get to know a few more things.

To me state of bang roads evokes a similarity with the pre-1991 indian socialism. Well u must be thinking how are they connected…

1) No matter how BIG, brilliant or innovative ur idea was u had go thru the bureaucratic setup and babudom of India to get ur plan sanctioned… By the time this would have been done (if ur following the right path) u would have got frustrated, dejected and disappointed which makes u think that ur idea was worthless. U will never realize the potential of ur idea or company after being caught in the mess of bureaucracy.
2) With bang roads .. no matter how BIG, fast or innovative ur car is u have to go thru the dirty, shabby, gross and ill treated roads. Even if ur car can churn out 350bhp power and zoom to 100 kmph in 6 secs theres no worth for it. U have to travel at the speed of 10-15 kmph and reach ur destination. By the time u reach ur destination even in a Mercedes benz u get frustrated, tired. Ur productivity is reduced by the time u reach ur office. U will never know the potential/greatness of ur car, its full potential is lost somewhere in the bang roads.
3) Is it good in a society for everyone to be equal??? Well I would say is it good for any company where all the employees are alike in every aspect. I am sure that such a company might reach great heights for some years but when it vanishes it will vanish in such a way that there wont remain any traces of it. It is dead since its inception. Utopic society seems very nice and rosy but has great inherent flaws. Differences exist everywhere and need to be accepted. There is always an advantageous and disadvantageous way out in a difference. What matters is how we accept and adopt the advantageous way????
4) Coming back to roads…Both these things ie Indian socialism and bang roads have happened inspite of the govt knowing what a deleterious effect this can have on the economy of a country/city.

And coming to the answer I am still thinking of it. I think the answer lies in post 1991 india ... why did india change ... if u have any comments/thoughts/opinions do lemme know ...

3 comments:

kanachi said...

hey i appreciate ur diligent attempt to connect tha two in a way it shud be..nice blog with original ideas ...

Dorado said...

good essay.. sthg worth thinking abt. in both cases (roads of blr (i gave u one more abbr. for bangalore!) and pre-1991 india), people actually making decisions are not the ones affected by it e.g. bda guys are least bothered abt roads leading to itpl or sigma since they rarely use them. maybe giving more powers to local bodies (decentralization) would help

Hareesh Veldandi said...

The problems for worse conditions of transportation in Indian cities like Bangalore are:
They lack planning, mass transportation systems, and skyscrapers. Planning is always done by keeping 5-10 years ahead instead of 50-100 years! People don't think big. Proper mass transportation diverts traffic! Skyscrapers limit city sizes! Also, some of the congested roads usually are created by gvnt's inability to demolish temples, masques, churches, and buildings of politicians and their friends, at least it is the case in Hyd. Finally, yes, govt and Bureaucracy are always obstructions for implementing anything! Solution is to think big, build planned road and mass transporation systems!