The Metro has taken over the entire city. Traffic jams pile up at the pillion. Corporators insist the potholes will be filled only once the construction is done
The Metro has taken over the entire city. Traffic jams pile up at the pillion. Corporators insist the potholes will be filled only once the construction is done. Main roads have been blocked off. And everyone who has lived in Bangalore through these construction years has quickly forgotten Plaza Theatre and the tree-lined MG Road Boulevard.
All we want is the damn train to get on those monorails so we don't lose the bus in terms of being a cool metropolis.u00a0
But first things first before the Metro launches. The fight is now on to name the stations with appropriate sobriquets. Unlike other metropolises, where you merely take the tube from Paddington to Mayfair or you catch the train from Shinjuku to Ropponggi, Bangalore's tube network is going to be named after our local luminaries.
After all, Mumbai has its Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Chennai its Kamaraj Airport. So why can't a Bangalorean get on at Kuvempu Central and get off at Ramya East?
The argument these days, is to appropriately choose the right people. The cricket stars have their own Anil Kumble Circle and Rahul Dravid Circle that are well-known enough to pacify them, without having to waste a metro stop as well.
The historic figures of Karnataka are long dead enough to not care whether a station is named after them. And anyway Kempegowda Bus Station is good enough a nod in that direction. Theatre artistes, literary luminaries and legendary film directors have all had a square or building dubbed in their honour. So it has all come down to christening the stops after our current leaders.
Political parties are in the fray to having the stations named after their own politicos. The Congress' argument for having one of the stations named for Dharam Singh quickly fell flat. You wouldn't want a station with a reputation for constantly being late and somnolent, now would you? The Wodeyar Central was bounced too for the same reasons.
The JD(S) rapidly withdrew their application for a stop named after their leader. After all, as a man of the masses, he felt his image went more with a cart convention than a hi-tech tube terminus.
Yeddy, last heard had got the plot a little wrong. He hasn't yet got his head around the fact that a station was going to be merely called after his name. All this while, he thought it was going to be signed to his name.
Meanwhile, the trains wait, while these weighty issues are being hotly debated.
