“So, your son is moving to Bangalore? But people from Mumbai do not like Bangalore. They find it difficult....” commented one of our neighbourhood friends in Powai to my mother. Another relative of mine who met me at a wedding in Thane after my relocation to Bangalore commented (albeit ominously) “Bangalore...?” and mimed that it is so vital to know how to drive a 2-wheeler or a 4-wheeler in Bangalore.

In 1957, my father shifted to Mumbai from a remote village near Kanyakumari. Now, in 2008, it was the turn of his elder son to move to Bangalore. The wheel was turning a full circle. For a hard core Mumbaikar like me, it took a while to get adjusted to the new place. But at the cost of sounding a bit immodest, I made many friends here - right from travel house car drivers, auto drivers, clerks in post offices, post master generals, priests in temples, the newspaper vendor, the shop owner selling bags, the flower vendors, vegetable vendors, office boys, the boy filling petrol in the petrol pump, the security guard in the school...  One of my colleagues often chides me, “Practically everyone you have interacted with has become your friend? Do you have a magic wand?” I had to smile sheepishly at him.

Do you feel I am talking about a topic that is as arcane and as pedantic as it can get? Now sample some of these instances mentioned in the paras below and you will be horrified that the culture in Bangalore has become rotten beyond imagination. Once a sleepy city and prided as the garden city of India, this city has paid a huge price for earning the tag of “Silicon Valley of India”. Let me hasten to add that the role of outsiders/ migrants in polluting this culture is immense. The vanity resulting out of huge pay packets in the IT industry has spoilt most of the population here.

One of my dear friends, Nishant Agarwal (the branch manager in Andhra Bank) was aghast at the salaries people were earning in Bangalore. He cited one particular instance where the husband was earning some 9 lacs per month, the wife was earning 3 lacs per month and they had come to him for a home loan for building a weekend getaway near Bangalore.  Working couples simply do not know what do with all this money. Result? They engage drivers, cooks, ayahs, tuition teachers. The only activity that they feel compelled to do all by themselves is taking bath and cleaning themselves after their morning ablutions in the toilet.

Now, a few facts....

1. A middle aged lady is dropping her kids to a school in Bangalore in a swanky car. As she gets out, it appears as if she has emerged directly from her bed. She is in a diaphanous nightie, the length of which is restricted to her thighs. Stylishly she walks to the school gate knowing full well that vegetable vendors, security guards in the school and other passersby are ogling at her.
    
2. School children in Bangalore have been increasingly using the “F...” word.
    
3. One schoolboy (Class V) wrote on his blackboard, “My class-teacher is a f....g bitch”.
    
4. Another boy who is supposedly the grandson of a former politician is so spoilt that teachers are petrified of him. Fed up of their threats yielding no results, the school has now suggested to the parents to take the boy (Class V) for psychiatric counselling at NIMHANS, Bangalore.
    
5. Two young girls are molested near M G Road, Bangalore in broad daylight. No one comes to their rescue.
    
6. ”Today after 42 years, this is the first time I got up at 5 o’clock in the morning” comments a parent – Samyukta Gowda. She had to get up that early to pack vegetarian sandwiches for her son who was going for a badminton practice session at Jyoti Niwas college. Samyukta proudly declares that she doesn’t remember when was the last time she had entered the kitchen. 
    
7. Another boy in Class VIII (who has been brought up under the care of ayahs and maids) has begun smoking. Both his parents {working in Accenture and Infosys} have a crazy schedule. To make matters worse, they have to travel frequently. The parents were shell shocked when they came to know that their son had begun smoking.

Thus, the growth and decadence of Bangalore seems to be an ambivalent statement. Day in and day out the city is being assaulted.

1. Every second person in Bangalore has a two-wheeler.
2. On an average, every household has at least two vehicles.
3. Pollution levels in the city are so high that Bangalore has now earned the tag of “Black City”.
4. Auto drivers (literally) take you for a ride and display a cavalier attitude even for the elderly and the sick...
5. The IT population in Bangalore has pampered the flower sellers, fruit sellers, and vegetable vendors so much that anyone who negotiates with these people for a better bargain will invite the choicest of abuses.
6. Every second street in the city is filled with abattoirs and poultry shops.
7. There is filth everywhere with people spitting at all odd places, throwing garbage wherever they find a vacant spot.
8. The narrow lanes of Bangalore are occupied on both sides for free parking of two-wheelers and four-wheelers.
9. Traffic congestion in the city is turning from bad to worse.
10. Owners of independent houses merrily park their vehicles on the road and there is no one to question them.
11. There are no separate zones on the road earmarked for cycles.
12. Public transportation is pathetic and one is wondering if the metro rail system will ever improve things in the city.

I am sorry for presenting such a morbid picture and such a grim scenario, but that is the way it is. There is no willingness to change and old-timers are pained to watch their favourite garden city turning into a city of vagrants and gold diggers .The floating population in the city has only made people more avaricious and morality has been thrown to the winds. Is there an escape from this? Or are all these events a result of rapid Westernization of our nation? Bangalore is the first victim of this trend! What does the future portend?