Our Cities

There is a post by Vishal here. He is cribbing about how the Bangalore has taken a turn for the worse. I have been visiting Hyderabad and Chennai quite frequently and hence am able to see Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad and observe them closely. So I think I can offer a little bit of perspective of my own. Our cities really are taking a turn for the worse.

Standard of Life:

Things have not become worse interms of standard of life. There is uninterrupted power (well, almost), every house has a TV, Refrigerator, almost every one has a cell phones, nearly a third have two wheelers and a tenth have nice cars with ACs etc. But what about quality of life? What about the longer commute times, higher noise levels, more pollution. It is not just that.

Friends and Family:

Friends and Family used to have all the time in the world. Now you have to call and decide on a time to meet and it usually is the third proposed time that is suitable for both of you to meet. And you have to call before you go. Well, you say it is understandable. May be it is, but it is not just that.

Attitude Changes:

There is a change in people's attitude. While you are outside, say on the road or on a bus or in a restaurant, nobody is willing to give an inch. For example:

a) You are riding a bike and you turn on the indicator to take a left turn and some punk who is riding on your left couple of metres behind you increases his speed so as to overtake before you take the turn. What the hell is going on?

b) You are in a railway reservation counter and all you want to do is fill the form, stand in the queue, get the ticket and get out. What do you do when there is one counter and there are ten people bunched at the counter and there is no semblance of a queue? The choice is to become a medieval man yourself or wait for an hour?

Nobel prize for Game Theory:

I find it very apt that this year's Nobel for Economics goes to Professor Thomas Schelling and Professor Robert Aumann who did pioneering working in Game Theory.

Their insights help explain economic conflicts such as price wars and trade wars, as well as why some communities are more successful than others in managing common resources.

Underdeveloped Country?

Some times, when I go around some parts of our cities, I feel like I am seeing some underdeveloped country shown in Discovery channel. Let me describe you a scene:

On a small and dirty street, you see a group of people standing excitedly in a circle. As you go closer, you see a couple of chicken lying tired in the centre of circle. An elder looking man (tribal head?) goes to the centre and beheads them. Then a young lad, aged about 13-14 years, picks up the dead birds and skins them.

He takes the birds to big cooking pan. This pan is on a small kerosene stove but it produces surprisingly large amount of flames given its small size. There are a bunch of hungry kids standing around waiting for the chicken to be cooked. All this is happening right on the street.

You feel disheartened because you know the street you are in was a road. A bigger and cleaner road. Because of encroachment on both sides it has become smaller. And over time, it has become dirtier. You hope that it will get back to its glory days. But deep down you are scared that it won't.

Deteriorating Social Fabric:

This is a pet peeve of mine and there will be more posts in future when I have something to share.

Thats all for now. Things are going fine on the company front. Please do read the corporate blog as well. Until next week, take care.