Bangalore- my home

As a person who has lived in Bangalore (the garden city) my whole life(my life is now just 13 years old), I have heard a lot about the so called environmental degradation. I have actually heard enough to know as if I had lived then. Here are some of the best lines I've heard and their speakers.

My father
"I have seen Majestic bus stand as a huge lake"
"When I was small, we could touch the water in our well. Now it's so deep, I cant even see it"
"I have seen the area around Sankey tank free. There was not a house in sight and we were scared to go there after 6:30 in the evening"

My mother
"When we were small, we didn't even need to put in the fan in summer. Now people actually put AC"
"I have seen Sampige Road with no traffic. One car, at the most two passed by every hour"
"When we were small, even smaller than you(lesser than 13), we crossed main roads. They had no traffic at all"


My Grandfather
"Bangalore was never this hot even in April. The temperature would never go above 30 degrees and it rained almost every evening"
"South End Circle was the real southern end. Today it is almost the centre of the city"
Think it's all ancient? Then read below.

Myself
I remember seeing Nrupathanga road, MG road, Mahakavi Kuvempu road and Maleshwaram Circle road lined with trees. Not a drop of sunshine could be seen on the road"
"I have seen the main road near my house free of traffic"

Who We Are And What We Want

If you live in Bangalore, chances are that you've noticed one thing in the past few years: the place is literally going to the dogs. We're sorry, but that informal cliche is the only way to put this situation. 

From Pramod Muthalik to stray dogs, the bureaucracy to the common man, every single one of us is biting into a large portion of what was once a great city, gnawing at it and pulling it down. But these don't affect the lives of a large chunk of this city. In fact, they hardly affect our lives at all. 

Yes, we read it in the newspaper everyday, but what are the odds of one individual getting caught by the so called 'Moral Police'? Getting bitten by a stray dog on you way home? We say that the odds are about as much as those of you getting struck by lightening in the basement of your seven storey office building. Just take a minute to think about it. When was the last time a stray dog with teeth in its mouth came within 5 feet of you? 

What really affects us is the nature of the environment. The worst part of this problem is that it is a silent killer. It does not get in the open. As far as we know, it has not caused any loss of life at all. What it really does is something untraceable, intriguing and sometimes unbelievable. It hardly affects the quantity of human life around us, but where there is one 'Q', there has to be another. Quality. If we ask you to rate the quality of your life out of ten, would you be able to give us a precise figure? How nice our lives would be, if we could say, "Yes...my quality of life seems a bit low at 3.5 today, maybe I need to something to improve it..."! But can we detect it?

When we cant precisely detect something, we can but be relative. As my Physics teacher says, you can't measure the temperature of an object without a thermometer, but what you can do is judge whether it is hot, cold, warm or cool. 

Therefore, relatively speaking, how is your quality of life, post pollution? Don't tell us that you feel calm and rejuvinated after walking through a clogged road full of traffic and smoke. If you were, why are spas and resorts such a hit?

Now, enough introduction. Straight to the point. Just what the heading says: Who We Are And What We Want.

We are a group of very, very, very distressed Bangaloreans. We have hopes in the city and we feel that this is the right time to put those hopes and beliefs into action. We plan to do many things, but the few of us who are starting this movement are simply not enough. We need more people. We need YOU. Come join us, and we can make localities, cities, even the whole country green! This may sound like the kind of thing great orators like Hitler would say, but we have a purpose, and we're just driving a point home.

If you'd like to know more about this movement, simply post your comments on this blog or mail us at concern.for.bangalore@gmail.com

We assure you that your mails and comments will be welcomed and responded to within 24 hours of receiving them.

Thank You

The ConcernForBangalore Team (Badly Needing Reinforcements!)