As I walk down the memory lane and reminisce about my childhood, my heart aches with the rapid metamorphosis that I have witnessed occurring in a city that is closest to my heart. Gone are the days, when I would wake up to birds chirping, nightingales singing, the fragrance of flowers and the huge trees adorning the lanes and by lanes of Bangalore. Gone are the days when I enjoyed my walk with my mother on the weekends. We cherished our time at the MG Road boulevard which has now become history.
When I take a walk with my son on MG Road today, the only thing I see are seamless roads with colourful buildings. No longer is it a road filled with colorful flowers and lush greenery. The 'once upon a time blooming Bangalore' has now become 'dooming Bangalore'. The garden city has paved way to concrete jungles which was once an abode of blooming flowers. Gone are those avenues, laden with trees; those little birds hustling and bustling across branches building nests for their little ones.
The good old Bangalore which was once home to little birds, and a haven for thousands of trees has now turned into a bait for realtor sharks, endless barren concrete roads. Thereby, turning the haven to hell and a garden city into a graveyard in the name of development, advancement and what not. The once upon a time famous lakes have become history in the name of urbanisation, construction and infrastructure activities. The 280 odd lakes have been reduced to 50 out of which most of them have dried or are in a pathetic condition, thereby diminishing the once rich flora and fauna that thrived in the city. This has also led to a drastic fall in the number of migratory birds visiting the city.
The Bangalore now is just a city with cloistered buildings, clogged roads, suffocating areas, unending traffic jams, bottlenecks with no water, no breeze, unlike the garden city that was filled with trees, flowers and lakes. The sound of the chirping birds has been replaced by noisy horns of the vehicles. The little sparrows have been silenced by the two legged corporate sharks who have installed mobile towers. Moreover, with realtor sharks developing concrete jungles in and around city, the population of many species of birds, for which Bangalore was once a paradise, has reduced drastically. Bengalooru which has its origin from Benda kaalu, has literally become benda ooru, with temperatures soaring to an unimaginable and unfathomable level. The air conditioned city has now become a city of air conditioners without an iota of fresh air.
The crisp and clear fresh air has given way to heavy smoke and polluted air. The fog that I witnessed as a child during winter has been reduced to smog now. The December chill that the natives of Bangalore experienced is a thing of the past today. Sometimes, I really wonder if Bangalore will ever get its glory of being a garden city back. Let us all strive to bring back the lost glory, the pride of Bangalore, the greenery so that the future generations will at least have fresh oxygen to breathe.
(The reader is a resident of R T Nagar)