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Bangalored by Bombay

Updated on: 17 April,2009 08:03 AM IST  | 
Prahlad Nanjappa |

Every time I come back from Mumbai, I heave a sigh of relief that I live in Bangalore

Bangalored by Bombay

Every time I come back from Mumbai, I heave a sigh of relief that I live in Bangalore.u00a0

Except the last time I landed a couple of days ago.u00a0

Somehow Mumbai seemed cleaner, the air was breezier, the traffic moved in its right lanes, and the government functionary; who I met for some paper work was polite and efficient.

Cut to Bangalore with its chaotic traffic snarls, inefficient bureaucracy and a baking summer redolent with dust and fumes.u00a0 The trees are getting scarcer, a free flowing road is completely non-existent and our infrastructure isn't crumbling, it's crumbled!
u00a0
The night life in Bombay of course was always better than we ever had in Bangalore. The bars and the Bellinis are somehow swisher. And the crowd that trickles in "early" at 11 p m seems so much more urbane than our motley crew at Ice or at Blue.u00a0


In our grotty little corner of the world that used to be called Pub City, but is now a grime-infested, crime-riddled poxed out backwater, our complacency that we are Garden City Residents is as fizzy as stale draught we either have to do something so that our city pulls itself out of its sloth or mire ourselves deeper in the slime.u00a0




In Mumbai, people don't drink and drive, because you have an option of public transport: enough honest cabbies and rickshaw wallahs who will take an unaccompanied woman home late at night, and charge them by the meter. In Bangalore, you have only some leering auto guys who won't turn a hair before they strip you of all your earthly assets and a woman traveling alone? Naah! Forget it.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Sure, the apartments are smaller and grimier and more expensive in Tinsel Town. But at least you can do the interiors up the way you want to. Try calling a carpenter home in Bangalore and you'll end up banging your head on the wall not the nail on its head.u00a0

The only thing that Bangalore still does better is filter coffee. But I guess, the next time I go to Mumbai, those wily guys will have a frothing, aromatic dabra ready.

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