A Thousand Cuts: Namma Trees' Agony

As the city transformed itself from a pensioner's paradise to the country's premier Silicon Valley, it took a heavy toll on me. Chain saws scythed through the verdant green foliage to make way for wider roads, new layouts (with some existing ones getting extended to seventh and eighth phases) and steel and glass office structures to house the who-is-who of technology economy.

The plight of those of us who escaped the blades of chain saw is no better. Many of us can't even withstand a minor gust of say 40 km/hr speed and the most recent one decimated around 300 trees across the city in an hour. We thank our achchey sitare that we are not located in areas prone to cyclones! Vehicular and industrial pollution have badly shaved off our life spans by choking us with poisonous fumes.

The cementing of pavements, leaving no gaps around the roots of trees, blocks intake of water and vital nutrients, besides subjecting us to unbearable heat during summers. It also cuts supply of vital nutrients to the roots and their growth gets stunted and affects tree stability. It’s not that urban authorities are not aware of all this, but they feel that leaving gaps near roots would pose a headache for them as that spot would soon become de facto trash bin and may require periodic cleaning. So they choose the easy way out.

Then there are those telecom companies laying fiber optic cables. Callow youth clad in t-shirts with fluorescent jackets come to cut through the roads using noisy machinery. Sadly we don't have four legs like animals, otherwise we would have scooted at their very sight. Often we end up as unwitting target with our roots either getting cut or exposed, endangering our overall health. Sadly Indian roads are always at 'Men at work' mode. Power, water, telecom and other sundry utility guys compete with each other to leave their indelible mark on the road, especially if it is freshly tarred.

For our well being and a good balance, our branches do require periodic pruning. However, the one we occasionally undergo is not done by any tree expert, but by the Bescom guys, who, quite literally, have their own axes to grind. They do it just to prevent branches from touching the electric wires and have no idea what tree balance means. Such lopsided pruning often leaves us unsteady and vulnerable to the vagaries of monsoon.

Amidst all this ecological mayhem the only islands of old world tranquility can be found in army cantonments dotting across the city. Only there we get to see some neatly manicured lawns and well maintained tree lined boulevards. 

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Close Encounters With Alcometers

As my office timings are more of a graveyard variety with no weekend offs, while returning home I do sometimes run into barricades with policemen wielding alcometers.
 
Some would let me go without checking, probably they could easily read the acute hangover of office work writ large on my face. Some would peep into the rolled down window of my car and ask my name. On realising that there is no slurring of speech or I smell more of roti, sabzi or masala dosa with not even a whiff of Old Monk, they let me go.
 
However the more cautious ones place the alcometer, which resembles the first generation Nokia or Motorola mobile phone, near my mouth and say 'blow maadi'. Sometimes my blows are not strong enough (the thought of contracting some air borne diseases from those alcometers psyche me out) and they would ask me to do so again. After blowing I have to wait with some trepidation (have heard many stories of faulty alcometers) for that all-clear beep sound, which sometimes seems like eternity. Once it happens I get the green signal to go.
 
While pulling off my car I do see many not so fortunate ones, who happen to land on the wrong side of alcometer reading, lined up on the side of the road. They will be arguing and gesticulating with police higher ups seated inside jeeps. Sometimes I also see cops arguing with two wheeler riders after the test and taking off the ignition keys of the vehicle and ordering the riders to wait on the road side.
 
These barricades are often put up in close proximity to watering holes like pubs and five star hotels and in junctions which cannot be bypassed. Most of those who land in the police net are the ones returning from parties in their choicest party wear on fancy motorbikes and swanky cars. This is the scene on most Friday and Saturday nights and this drive gets more vigorous if a festival is round the corner.
 
The other day around midnight on December 30, 2014 near Koramangala Sony signal I was witness to a high drama. As the signal turned green I was about to take a left turn, but a cop with alcometer in hand flagged me down. As I stopped and he was about to say 'blow maadi' a scooter with three guys on it came up and the rider was not wearing a helmet either. Seeing a surefire scope for fines his attention got diverted.
 
But when he tried to flag them they tried to escape but fell right in front of my car. The policeman too suffered bruises on his shin during his efforts to stop them. His compatriot who was on the other side came rushing to his help. Both rained blows on the trio and took them and the scooter to the other side of road to fine them. I had no choice but to bear witness to all this, as the signal had turned red. However, in the melee the policeman forgot to check my alcohol levels and as the signal turned green once again I left.

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Power Transformers: Lurking Danger

Power outages at my house are rarely a quiet affair. They are often preceded by a loud thud from an electrical transformer located some 50 feet away from my flat. This squarish weather beaten, ageing and bulky metallic contraption perched on two rods on an electric post with numerous wires dangling around always exudes a sinister look. Sometimes from my balcony I do see sparks emanating from the transformer.

The condition of most transformers dotting the street corners and footpaths of the city is no different. Moreover, there is no protective fencing around most of them and these spots often degenerate into garbage dumping points. The fact that they are located overhead multiplies the element of surprise, with hapless pedestrians and motorists blissfully unaware of the dangers. Quite often on some footpaths one can also see hawkers selling their wares right below these transformers.

Electrical transformers are meant to transfer energy between circuits, switching energy from one voltage to another. But when flooded with too much electricity, the sudden surge can cause a transformer explosion. They do contain mineral oil to keeps the circuits cool, but during a spike in electricity the circuits fry and melt which often leads to sparks and sets the mineral oil aflame. A corroded or a faulty wire is enough to trigger a disaster.

The city had its fair share of electrocutions caused due to faulty transformers - the latest one being at Koramangala where a man sustained burn injuries and later died after a transformer explosion led to leakage of hot oil. He was riding a two-wheeler and happened to be near the transformer when the explosion took place. Quite a few times the matter have reached courts and the city's power supplier Bescom has been ticked off by judges for its cavalier attitude.

Despite High Court directive to shift these transformers from crowded footpaths and street corners little has been done and around 9,000 of them still lurk over pavements in various parts of the city. Some of them are located on footpaths adjoining roads that witness high traffic volumes during peak hours. Motorists are often forced to halt near them due to traffic jams, and they have to thank only their lucky stars for surviving unscathed.

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Underage Driving: Menace on Wheels

A scene near a junction in Koramangala: Three boys clad in school uniform on a scooter graze past a Volkswagen Vento resulting in scratches on the rear end of the car. The trio had a minor fall but they immediately get up and race away before the middle aged car driver could do anything other than come out of his vehicle and throw up his hands in helplessness. The school kids fled unmindful of their minor injuries because they had breached three traffic rules (a) Riding triple on a bike (b) None of them were wearing helmet and (c) The guy riding the bike probably was nowhere old enough to have a licence!

Though the above incident may be dismissed as a harmless prank by restless teenagers, but quite often the consequences are far more disastrous, often causing serious injuries and even deaths to the riders and pedestrians.

The presence of a vehicle at their home often works as a huge motivator to learn how to handle them, especially when it happens to be of their siblings. A beginning is made by fiddling with horn and then, in case of two-wheelers, sitting on it to check if their legs are long enough to touch the ground. Then they graduate to getting a hang of brake and gear. Nothing gives them a bigger kick to impress their friends by flaunting their driving skills.

In many cases the parents too encourage and even feel proud that their underage ward has become an 'expert' driver of a scooter or car and see it as a sign of being adventurous. They see in them something they couldn't accomplish while they were young, in those licence-permit raj days even a cycle was a luxury. For many affluent parents it is the guilt of not have much time for their children that motivates them to gift them two-wheelers to keep them happy or else to keep up with the neighbours. Some are conscientious enough not to let their wards use two-wheelers to school, but allow them to use it while going for tuition, in order beat poor bus connectivity, and save time.

However, these coming of age rides do go awry leading to accidents and the subsequent brush with law makes the whole picture messy as the law sees accidents caused by someone without licence as criminal offence and makes parents too responsible. They are also barred from claiming insurance.

For parents it’s a huge embarrassment to step into police stations and they use all their clout to avoid it. Then they move heaven and earth to keep their children out of juvenile homes. Hence in most cases when an underage driver gets involved in accident, he flees the scene and later an older person with driving licence shows up to claim responsibility, to dilute the offence - as it happened in the recent episode involving the scion of India's richest family in Mumbai. The same trick was unsuccessfully tried at an earlier accident involving a prominent realtor's son in Bangalore. This tendency to go to any extent to save their wards only encourages underage driving and then even graduates to dangerous stunts like wheelies and drag racing.

Another issue that gets hardly reported is that of cleaning boys taking over the wheels of trucks on highways or while driving water lorries and tractors within the city. Drivers, who may be either tired or drunk, happily hand over the wheels to these boys, who may be barely aware of concepts like licence, often with disastrous consequences.

The business of preventing underage brats from using vehicles rests mainly with parents, followed by the police and schools.

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Adding Zing to Nightlife

For the city's glitterati it was time for euphoria. They have been smarting under jibes from their counterparts in Mumbai and Delhi that Bangalore has no night life. The closing time of restaurants and bars at 11.30 pm was seen as too uptight. Now the government has decided to take baby steps towards extending the deadline to 1 am for eateries on all days and for bars on Fridays and Saturdays, though with a caveat of 'trial period' for three months.

The city youths and some advocacy groups drawn from the who is who of technology economy had all along felt that such early closing hours does not jell with a city of international repute. With general elections round the corner the netas feel tempted to toss crumbs to the electorate and what better way to woo first time voters than increasing party hours. However the guys who are actually smirking and hoping for a windfall are those from the liquor lobby.
 
The men in khaki were always seen as party poopers as they had all along been saying that the existing staff has been stretched to their limits and they badly need some fresh recruits. But they had to willy nilly fall in line after being assured the cold comfort of support from home guards.
 
However they are not the only ones opposing it. The message boards of various news reports on many web sites have a legion of naysayers saying that crime graph would spike. Those nostalgic about end of pensioner's paradise era in city felt it will only help rich 'outsiders' get sloshed and drive cars and motorcycles under the influence.
 
Many also point out that though it would be okay to keep bars open for longer hours at the central business districts, but those located in predominantly residential suburbs could make lives miserable for nearby residents. It would only mean loud music, eve teasing and alcohol fuelled wheelies and drag racing  in their neighbourhood.
 
But the advocates of extended nightlife counter that crowds out on roads well past midnight will provide the safety of numbers and crime will actually come down. Keeping bars open well past midnight will discourage binge drinking.
 
However amid this din of heavily polarised debate nobody is asking what actually constitutes night life? Is it just keeping bars and restaurants open? What about public transport system such as BMTC buses and Metros? Shouldn't they also ply till the closing hours of nightlife? In its present form the only people who can enjoy nightlife are those who have their own vehicle (preferably chauffeur driven as police alcometers will be working overtime) or can afford taxis and autos. For others the extension of nightlife has little meaning. Hence, the argument about safety of numbers rings hollow.
 
The reason why a city like Mumbai has a bustling nightlife and continues to be fairly safe is because its public transport system functions almost round the clock. The last suburban train from Churchgate and CST leaves at 1.45 am and then begins services for the next day by 4 am. Same is the case with its BEST buses. It not only provides the safety of numbers on the streets but dissuades auto and taxi drivers from charging a fortune.

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Fear Factor at ATMs

It has been nearly a month since a grainy video spooked TV news viewers through its raw Hitchcockian brutality.  A woman enters an ATM kiosk to draw money. A man follows her. Seemed like a regular office goer, clad in a striped shirt and had a shoulder bag. But his sinister intentions become immediately apparent after he brings down the shutter in a jiffy. He demands money from her, but she refuses. Out from his shoulder bag, which many of us may use to carry files and lunch box, comes a large machete and a gun. After assaulting the woman he leaves with cash and a mobile phone.

Barring the minor success of tracking down the stolen mobile phone in Anantapur district, the ATM assailant is proving too smart for the men in khaki. His finger prints don't match with police records, thus showing he is either a first time offender or has come from some other state.

The assailant has also cleverly darted the trap the modern day criminals fall into - making calls on cell phones. Looks like the guy might be a lone ranger. For police it leaves only human intelligence or good old khabari as an option to hunt him down.

The police carried out a reality check of city ATMs and many of them were shuttered due to lack of security measures. The bank where this incident happened had no security guard and even the shutter was not latched on top, making the job of the assailant all the more easy.

To the general public it only meant lots of inconvenience, as they had long unlearned the habit of patiently queuing up at bank cash counters. Later many of them were restored once security guards were deployed, though many others measures suggested by the police remain unfulfilled.

Banks, which had already got many wake up calls, after earlier incidents of burglars decamping with ATM machines,  are still dragging their feet. They claim they will have to call for tenders and seek approvals from their corporate office to implement some of the proposed security measures. Slogans like 'Think global, act local' apparently has little to do with customer's safety!

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