Moonwalk creates waves, BBMP gets wake-up call

Baadal Nanjundaswamy reinvents his art, video goes viral
The pothole-ridden Nandidurga Road in Bengaluru; (inset) Baadal |  Vinod Kumar T
The pothole-ridden Nandidurga Road in Bengaluru; (inset) Baadal | Vinod Kumar T

BENGALURU: Baadal Nanjundaswamy, the artist who uses his art to draw the attention of civic authorities, on Monday posted a video on his social media account about a man on the Moon.
The man was actor Poornachandra Mysore, dressed like an astronaut, walking gingerly down an ill-lit road in Herohalli; its craters and potholes could well pass off for the surface of the Moon. With no streetlights along this stretch, the eerie light of passing vehicles only added to the atmosphere. It was Nanjundaswamy’s idea. The video hit about a million views. The impact grew, with many people sharing the video, and blaming the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for its failure to fix the city roads.

The video had the desired impact: BBMP sprang into action and repaired the road on Tuesday, but claimed innocence when asked about the video. Officials said they plan to start work on the stretch, anyway.
Roads in Herohalli have been in a pathetic condition for more than two years, with potholes impeding movement, especially as there are no streetlights on this stretch.

A BBMP official told TNIE, “We are unaware of the video but the road had to be fixed since it is in bad shape. We have been working on restoring areas in the city. But due to rain, the tar will not set, yet we are still worried about fixing the roads. There are many places across the city where roads have already been fixed.”

This is not the first time Nanjundaswamy has come forward to use his skills to bring it to the attention of the civic body, but he has so far done about 25 such artworks on the road to highlight their bad condition.
Corporator Rajanna of  Herohalli ward said, “The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board has been laying UGD lines across 110 villages, digging 10 feet deep. This ward is also a part of the project of laying UGD lines. We will restore the roads, once the lines are laid. Similarly, we were going to fix a road in Tunganagar Main Road in Herohalli but by then, a video was made. Once the monsoon rain is over, we will fix every road within two months.”When TNIE tried contacting  Nanjundaswamy, his number remained switched off.

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