BENGALURU: Good morning, Bangalore!
The city is a mixed bag of news nowadays. Our crumbling infrastructure seems like it’s hopeless, while hapless pedestrians and vehicle owners regularly fall into potholes and craters on the road and pavements, and break their bones. And indifferent regulatory bodies feign ignorance and helplessness all the while! The proverbial ‘buck’ is passed back and forth, and the beauty is that no one is held accountable.
Concerned citizens try to organise themselves and scramble to raise their voices, and predictably, after mouthing platitudes, our leaders go back to business as usual. No one cares or gives a damn, as long as this nameless faceless body (I’m being kind, we all know exactly who ‘they’ are!) is fed, bribed and feted, hoping they will leave us (the victims) alone.
There is a price tag for everything. Even if all your papers are in order, the ‘price’ must be met. So many people don’t even bother meeting the lawful criteria… after all, they must pay ‘the price’, right? The laws were always in place but never upheld. Suddenly there are spot-checks, raids and clampdowns on activities that were deemed kosher for years. Some people were not even aware these laws existed! I am not saying that ‘not knowing the law absolves you from breaking it’ but laws are implemented for the benefit of all citizens and not meant to be flouted by the ones who can pay.
My unnamed friend stayed in an upmarket building in a super swish locality where the builder hadn’t put in a water meter. For years, they paid no water bills and he says successive water-meter inspector would studiously skip reading their water meter because their high profile builder owned a couple of flats in the said building. The last I heard, doing that was a criminal offence! No one was any the wiser, until my friend put his foot down and insisted a water-meter be installed. Now they get whopping water bills and he’s not very popular with his neighbours. Imagine the loss to the exchequer, and how may more illegal connections there must be in Bangalore.
Recently, there was a big hoopla about many restaurants closing down because the authorities wanted building documents like occupation certificates that deems the buildings have complied with all safety norms like parking, fire regulations and other measures before they are issued music or liquor licences. The funny part is that the clampdowns have come in after the restaurants have been in business for decades. Who were the unscrupulous officials who allowed these lapses and put their clammy signatures on the permits before? Why do they get away scot-free? How come they are not hounded and persecuted to the full extent of the law? The music playing limit was always 10.30 pm with an extension, if approved by the police. Why the hullabaloo now?
I was really sorry for the loss of jobs by the closing of many favourite haunts, but I was determined to lift my spirits. After all, no one celebrates a landmark wedding anniversary lightly. So Imi and I trotted over to the elegant environs of The Oberoi for an elegant wine soiree. GM Visheshwar Raj-Singh and Pinky Padmaraj played perfect hosts over hors d’oeuvres and wines from the Tuscan Ferragamo Borro estate with a lively crooner (yes! we had music) in tow.
The elegant al fresco ambiance was perfect and the inclusion of friends only made it more delightful. We also briefly visited JW Marriott’s newly minted Merak, a chill-pill type nightspot, at the invitation of Deepa and Sandeep Archarya. The ambiance was relaxed and easy, what with Coronas and tequilas doing the rounds. But in the end, it was an anniversary celebration. So the husband and I slipped away for a private ‘me-time’ dinner.
Till next week, relax madi!