By Heavens, Bangalored, but breathless megapolis

March 6 :
Spurred by Sunder Pichai’s Google, Bangalore, renamed Bengaluru, is perhaps the world’s fastest growing megapolis. High-rises, divided by elevated highways jostling metro-lines and webs of interchanges have defaced a beautiful city once hailed as the garden city. 

Google opened its fifth and one of the largest offices outside California named Ananta meaning limitless at Mahadevapura on February 19. In April the Metro is poised to get its third- Yellowline-linking Silk Board and Bommasandra. The 18.8 km, 18 station line will give a new lifeline to the Electronic City which is the fastest growing region of India’s Silicon Valley along with Whitefield in the South East. 

(Infosys has 3,17240 employees in Bangalore alone)

One is impressed that Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro built Bangalore as their citadel when the American giants Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Deloitte, et al made it a point to rush in for a foothold. Attrition is also high. I bumped into at least a few young techies opting out of American conglomerates for equally or better paid deshi companies. 

( Caught in the web of quantum growth, KR Puram’s hanging bridge)

Driving to the city from down south Salem on the Kanyakumari-Kashmir NH 44, we ran into a jungle of the Metro-line running parallel to the elevated highway overshadowed by the skyscrapers of Oracle and Adobe leading the way to the Electronic City on the left. It was an awe-inspiring melee of the high and the low scrambling for breath due to the construction spree raising dust and chemical fumes from the never-ending stream of cars, buses and trucks. 

(Soon getting the its third Metro-the Yellow line- with driverless trains)

We saw delivery boys in Zomato and Swiggy uniforms wade through the maze with surprising speed while Uber, Rapido and Ola taxies along with Yula electric mopeds carrying techies to the nearest Metro stations where they could leave them to be grabbed by those going home. Thousands of green belted three wheelers should not be mistaken for electric as they run on petrol or CNG. The drivers also wear headphones linked to their mobile GPS and would not accept cash as they are also regulated by a private company’s application. 

On one of our daily chores, we travelled by Metro from Kadugodi Tree Park Station in Whitefield to MG Road station for a treat at the RSAOI-Rajendra Sinhji Army Officers’ Institute’s food court. Lt. Col. Johnson Thomas and his wife Gitanjali Mattam played hosts. I found many retired officers, brigadiers, et al, and their wives playing tennis and doing gymnastics or swimming ending up in their sumptuous eatery 

(Endless vehicles, its fumes and dust, turn its 1.3 cr dwellers gasping for breath)

One among them looked familiar with a white flowing beard like ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan. Out of curiosity, I went up to him and introduce myself as a journalist from Kerala. After exchanging pleasantries, I asked him if I could take a selfie along with him. ‘No,’ was his regimental curt reply. 

Not to be daunted, we did snap a couple of pictures in front of the RSAOI gate. Opposite to us stood the iconic Bangalore Public Utility Tower once the tallest in Bengaluru. Gita remembered the day in 1982 when we together snapped pictures under its shadow. Built in 1970s by the City Corporation, it has 25 stories. Now the city standard is 40-stories and more. 

(Church has a car-less weekend being celebrated)

We made friends with two most unlikely persons on board the Metro. One was the exuberant Nidhuna from Kannavam, Kanuur, a freelance photographer with a Kannada film group that was scheduled to travel to Utharakhand for shooting a new film. Her husband Prabeesh is with the construction and mining machine giant Caterpillar. The other was Nikhil from Mysore serving Thomson Reuters, the media company.

(Nikhil Nidhuna on the Pink line from Whitefield to MG Road)

To my dismay, most techies belong to the hipper generation do not care for newspapers. Though we passed by the Times of India office on the MG Road and the Malayala Manorama office on the Brigade Road, we felt no excitement in making a visit. The next morning we read their front page stories about the newest addition to Bengaluru’s Namma Metro-the driverless trains being test driven by rail officials. The driverless trains supplied by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) will be introduced on Yellow Line, running between RV Road and Bommasandra, officials said.

In the peak hours it will take almost 90 minutes to drive 18 km from Whitefield to MG Road. The Metro slices it to half. I wonder how much more efficient will be the driverless train.

(Malayali family revisits the 25 story tallest tower of 1970s-the Public Utility building on MG Road)

However, we were really impressed by the delivery speed. When at the end of a dinner at a relative’s home in Crystal Tiara, a gated community at Bellandur, South East Bengaluru, the hostess’s young daughter suddenly opened her mobile to place a belated order for ice cream. It took only a minute or two for the Zomato rider to ring the bell. 

(Three wheelers run on call by a mobile application.)

Crystal Tiara dwellers were waiting for the Metro line to reach their neighbourhood by 2026. ‘These urban lifestyle and conveniences have not reached most of the rural population in Karnataka,’ pointed out the host, a retired army colonel. Hence he is planning to invest on a 20 acre solar power field in Idukki, Kerala rather than in Karnataka. ‘Rural Kerala has better roads an infrastructure,’ he confirms. 

(For short commute, Yula electric mopeds are up for grab across the city)

Builders are ruling the roost in Bengaluru as it is so in every growing metropolis. ‘International Schools’ sprout up to cater to the burgeoning communities. Price of a 30X40 (3 cents) piece depends on the number of schools around. For instance, in Yelahanka satellite township, 15 km away from the central Majestic, it may go up to 50-60 lakhs. Also because it is the midpoint of the new swanky Kempagouda International airport at Devanahally.