BIG is In

From BIG malls to BIG superstores, BIG Mac to BIG cars, even BIG portholes to BIG idiots on the road, Bangalore is under MASSIVE attack. While this is what many purport to be the inevitable outcome of the increased prosperity of the middle class, the democratization of information, the Americanization of the east, etc etc (none of which I disagree with), I was, nevertheless, taken aback by the scale of the attack. And apparently, you can't really escape this resizing exercise, as Roshan found out, aghast at seeing this huge SUV parked in his driveway. "Not here also now, please!", kind of sums up his reaction (it was his precise reaction, I think).

I dont necessarily have a problem with big things. But I do have an issue with what these things are doing to a city not made to accomodate them. Yes sir, Bangalore is cracking at the seams, struggling to contain it's own growth. Pensioners' paradise has now become BIG's backyard, rather faster than any of us would have imagined. A lot of us from Bangalore have strong emotional links with the city, and we've kinda been optimistic about the fact that Bangalore has been India's shining light, a modern, green city. Modern it is, but it's green is being very swiftly obliterated to make way for more development. Couple that with a new government that was formed as a backlash against urban development at the expense of rural upliftment, and what we get is a city growing organically, multidirectionally like an amoeba, without any overall direction or systematic planning for this growth.

As the infrastructure buckles under the weight of BIG mania, Bangalore has become one BIG paradox. For Bangaloreans to attain the comfort of the Forum mall or the convenience of shopping at Metro, they need to endure hours of endless traffic and the discomfort of pollution and noise on bone-jarring road surfaces. And somehow, so many people want more: The Bigger, the Better! Is it only us, the old-timers, who pine for the city, seeing as we have, what it once used to be like? Look no further than the meaning of Bangalore for the inherent paradox that signifies the city's current state: Bangalore (benda kaalu ooru) = 'village of boiled beans'?!

What does the future hold? Either the city continues on it's random ways similar to an amoeba, which may not be so bad, because, eventually, like an amoeba that reproduces by splitting into smaller amoebae, Bangalore may split up into smaller, satellite towns, each with their own governance responsibilities. But even the amoeba scenario seems rather optimistic, as the reverse phenomenon has been characterizing Bangalore's growth for a while now. Bangalore subsumes its satellite towns, forming one big, gory mess. For those who prefer visual analogies, think of a cracked raw egg, the insides of which spill out, covering everything in it's proximity to form a gooey, sticky mass. Thats India's garden city for you.

"The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’"

- The times they are a-changin, Bob Dylan