BANGALORE BYTES AGAIN!!

In the last post I talked about how it was difficult for pedestrians to walk through in the domlur junction. But now I am glad that I am walking and not driving. This happens when it starts to rain. The previous day or rather the previous night we were planning to go back home from office.

We had been given some work as part of the project (the first work we had got) and we stayed back to make sure that it is finished on time. So by the time we started from office it was 10. Now after a long period of time, it was raining heavily in Bangalore. We were 5 people, one person had a bike and remaining people were walking. So we asked a auto the rate for going home. It is barely one km from here but he asked for 100 rupees. We bluntly refused. The auto person warned that it was full of water and difficult to walk. I was wearing sandals and not shoes so I said I don’t care and we walked on. Two people went on bike. Remaining three of us walked.

The initial part of the road was ok. We walked a bit. But then we saw that there was only water in front and no road. A lot of cars were going there. I asked for a lift in one of them. He asked me where I worked. I said IBM. He said,” hop on” and also added “hope you have not misunderstood me asking such a question. I said no not at all. I wanted lift only till the main road as I planned to walk as soon as the water level goes down. Now when I reached the main road, I was left with my mouth gaping.

One side of the road was full of water. Now just saying full won’t justify it at all. It was overflowing from the right to the left side. The water level was at least 3 feet deep. There was a traffic block there. Going forward I saw that one of the cars, an alto was lying at an oblong angle on that road. The water was till the window sill, some half feet below the window. The engine got off and the car was literally floating. Some cars went past it and due to the wave caused by that this car was moving around in water. The partition between the two roads was high and it was like a dam. The water was till the brim and overflowing. Some places where some of the bricks had broken off, the water was gushing like the water flowing from a dam. When one car passed the wave caused by that caused a larger volume of water to flow and some people in bikes had to get down to prevent being swept away. The bikers were taking the bikes up through the separation and moving to the opposite road. There was a traffic jam for at least 2 km. auto rikshaws lifted their vehicles and kept it on safer and higher ground. The Bangalore traffic and road were in a pitiable state. It was at this moment that I realized why people say walking is good for health. 

Bangalore Bytes

It has been three months since I have come to Bangalore. I have moved here and there. I have seen quite a few places, roamed around certain areas. Recently we were shifted to a new office. It is in domlur. Those who are in Bangalore know where the place is, right? Well when we went there for the first time, we didn’t know where the place was exactly. So we got down at a stop after a very long and tedious journey.
We got down before the domlur junction. Now there is no junction as such but there is a very big and somewhat classy flyover. We looked at it in wonder. Now the job was to cross the flyover as our office was on the other side. If we are in a vehicle it is very easy to go to the other side as we just need to climb the flyover and get down at the other side. Now what about pedestrians like us? We checked if there is any way of crossing along the flyover. Tough luck! Even cycle is not allowed on flyover. Next we tried to go underneath the flyover. Tougher luck! A big sewer canal was flowing beneath it. So there was only one way. Go to left or right. Right was out of question as we had to cross road to do that. So we settled for the left as went along the road on the left. It snaked its way in a big curvy fashion and ended some half a kilometer away. We reached there but along the whole way we were searching for a place in between where we can slip through to reach the other road. But no way was there. Then at last we reached the end of the road. From there we took a u turn and made for the other road.
Now let me tell you that there is no footpath there. We somehow managed to get to the mid partition of the road and had to wait another 10 minutes in the hot sun to cross the next road. All the rain had made the matter the matter worse. There was water on the road and on the side walk. The water on the road was splashed every time the vehicles passed by drenching the people standing on the side walk. We took a safe route and made our way in such a way that we could avoid that area. Even then, the side walk winded along the way in a manner decided by rain. There was water everywhere. The water from the gutter, from the rain, from the broken pipes and don’t know where else. My new black leather shoes now looked brown as if it is freshly polished. Somehow we managed to reach the entrance of the EGL( Embassy Golf Links) and from there it was ok. We went straight to the fourth floor and reported to the manager.