Bangalore - a sleeping volcano

For the last three days, Bangalore has witnessed sporadic incidence of violence across its busiest commercial centers. Just before we start pointing fingers, lets think what impact it can bring on Bangalore – the IT capital of India – in the global market. The timing couldn’t have been worse as many companies are already leaving Bangalore for various reasons.

When Rajkumar was abducted our IT industry lost about $40 millions in terms of revenue. By spending half of that as ransom to Veerappan, we could’ve easily got Rajkumar back. If this had happened today, the figures would’ve been tripled. Situation was even worse when Rajkumar died, this time it was the anti – social elements (so called Raj-kumar fans) who went on rampage – this time police was on the receiving end.

I couldn’t make a sense out of it when a group of Muslim fanatics wanted to mourn over the death or say killing of Saddam Hussain the former dictator of Iraque who have massacred thousands of people when he was ruling. My intention is not to justify America’s invasion of Iraque, but to show how silly and illogical it is to conduct such a procession after atleast a month of Saddam’s execution. If we think such an act can make any difference to America’s policy on Iraque… my advice is to think again. The end result was nothing but loss of couple of “Indian lives” – where should we add these counts to? Saddam or the brainless people who organized such an event?

If this was not enough, more trouble was on the way when our beloved Hindu friends called for a procession in the same area which was already tensed. Result – burned BMTS buses, lorries, bikes and loss of 12 year old boys life.

Its not just communal violence which makes Bangalore a dangerous place to live, but also the economic imbalance. At one side you have the so called creamy layer of software engineers whose income is almost same as road side beggars. Surprised ? according to a recent survey, road side beggars makes not less than 800-1,200 rupees a day. On the other side we have people who struggle to get a decent pay to support themselves and their family. Result – IT people are being attacked directly and indirectly. At times it’s the thieves who wants nothing but the laptop and credit cards and sometimes it’s the auto rickshaw drivers who’s meter stops working and charges goes high as 100% if they see a guy coming with an IT company’s badge.

If you think its just the people who is causing the problem – think again. Sporadic electricity, inadequate or improper drainage system, wayward development … issues are countless. Sooner or later, the inevitable will happen and Bangalore will never be the same old IT capital of India anymore!!!