(Part-4) Public Infrastructure | Life In India After Returning From US

TLDR - Public Infra sucks. It sucks real bad. Warning - You Might Get Triggered!

The entropy (disorder/randomness) of a given system always increases.

- Second law of thermodynamics.

To experience the mighty force of entropy, all you really have to do is to go on a reasonably long drive in Bangalore. You’re a saint if you reach your destination all cheerful and smiling. You’re human if your spirits are crushed as you get swept over by the swirling tide of chaos on the city streets.

Welcome to my hometown - Bangalore! The once charming garden city of Namma Bengaluru where the evening air used to waft with the delightful aroma of filter coffee and Mysore Pak, has now degenerated into an urban hellscape - a heaving mass of humanity just under 1.4 crore, a nightmarish concoction of unplanned development, claustrophobic roads bursting with slow moving traffic, air and noise pollution, and apathetic, disorganized governing bodies.

You can’t spread your arms here without them hitting another person or object.

P. S - This post will for the most part be focused on my personal experiences and commentary on life in Bangalore. But I’m guessing that barring a few details here and there that might differ in other Indian metros, the things I’ve written about here won’t be too far off from identical experiences everywhere else in India.

After having been here for two years now, I can’t say I’ve gotten used to the shockingly inadequate public infrastructure in my city. I’ve only toughened up to tolerate it and to some degree - desensitized.

The only reason we’re still happy here is because we’re indoors more than outdoors. We don’t have jobs to juggle and the associated commute. A long commute would have been the ultimate deal breaker.

In Bangalore, your physical health, happiness and mental well-being is all inversely tied to the amount of time you spend on the road everyday. The less you find yourself on the street, the better off you’ll be.

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Stages of Adjustment

They say the five stages of grief a person moves through are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance.

It’s ironically funny how accurately this applied to me as I settled into my new life in India after ten years abroad. I didn’t quite pass through the bargaining phase, and maybe dealt with some mild depression, but I mostly continue to hover between anger and acceptance depending on my experiences on a given day.

I was in plain denial during the initial days. We had just begun our experiment with early retirement and had gotten closer to family, which was very exciting. Authentic Indian food and sweets kept us distracted. The easy access to golgappa and masala puri every evening was beautiful.

And then as we settled into our routine, the facade of denial gradually gave way to the next stage - Anger.

I’m not naive - I knew what I was getting into by moving back to Bangalore, but knowing is still different from starting to actually live through grim realities.

The slow realization of the public conditions of the city we’d be calling home was upsetting. The crowds, traffic, noise and lack of accessible open spaces soon began fraying my nerves. Overcome by anger and despair, I began ranting on the Blind tech forum.

Here’s some screenshots of my strongly worded posts on Blind.

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If people are happy in Bangalore, it’s because they have stuff going on in their own personal lives that act as distraction and keep them occupied.

I’m risking sounding like a judgemental jerk here, but I think the happy ones have some combination of the below things going for them -

• A lavish private life that keeps them lost in their own hedonistic indulgances.

• A great social circle (my primary distraction) and rewarding connections.

• An already great career/business, or one with promising future prospects.

• Deep rooted ties that makes this the only place they can call home.

• They’re actively involved in social-work (like this guy!) and are busy making a positive difference.

The rest of the folks are in the city out of necessity, or because of factors beyond their control and would probably be elsewhere if they had a choice.

Dear reader, do you disagree and are triggered? I’m interested in hearing thoughts and experiences that are vastly different from my possibly-inaccurate generalization. I’d love to read your contradictory comments, if you think I need to open up my mind a little bit. Rude comments with personal attacks are welcome!😂

If not, how else can you not lose your cool and continue on with your whistle-a-tune, sing-a-song, cheerful day when creepy shit like this keeps occuring in our city on a regular basis?

Man falls into open drain
Tree crashes on youth
Woman drowns as car gets submerged
Metro pillar crashes killing mother and child
Water tank comes crashing down
Transformer explodes

Except the last one, these freak accidents have all happened in just the last six months! Agreed that weird shit happens all over the world, but it’s worth noting the frequency with which these occur in Bangalore.

These are not your typical “normal” accidents such as collisions - India already shines bright in the regular accident fatalities chart. The links I’ve listed above are a result of urban mismanagement and blatant violation of regulations governing how infrastructure is to be built and maintained.

While I haven’t fallen prey to OCD, I do harbor some fear about something really bad happening to me or my family someday. I try to mitigate the risks and exercise the precautions I’ve listed in the above screenshot about not dying a stupid death in India.

I should probably put that ‘avoiding-untimely-death’ post on r/India on Reddit for wider reach. Who knows, I might become the reason a few precious lives don’t die young. (Update - I did post on Reddit!)

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It took me a long time to make up my mind to write this, suppressing dissenting thoughts such as “Don’t do this. You’ll be upsetting people. Some of this blog readers are based right here in Bangalore. You’ll severely offend them, etc, etc..”.

And then recently came the announcement from the Karnataka State Government that there won’t be much development this year, owing to funds being set aside for all their promised vote-bank freebies.

That helped me decide firmly that ground realities had to be shared without worrying who it might offend.

So I’ll continue ranting for a few more posts, while also making sure to note any silver-linings and rays-of-hope amidst all the madness. Some topics lined up to be published in the near future are -

• Air Pollution and Traffic - two of my biggest sources of frustration and unhappiness.

• Some tips and observations on housing - things to watch out for before buying a house.

• What I do to ensure happiness and high quality of life despite the chaos that surrounds me.

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I hope this negativity-oozing post hasn’t tempted you to hit that unsubscribe button, and that you continue to stick around despite all my cynicism. I just don’t blindly want to sugarcoat things and keep yapping about how awesome and rainbowy everything is.

FIRE feels rosy and gives the illusion of a “happily-ever-after” fairytale. While I don’t wanna keep painting an unrealistic picture, to some extent, FIRE is awesome!

How else could I afford to spend two blissful hours with my son on a Sunday night dissecting a bigass jackfruit, without the baggage of existential crisis that comes with having to face yet another work-week that begins the next morning?

I’d rather carry my son’s weight on my shoulders than the heavy load of workplace anxiety!

Rant soon,
- Dog

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Other Posts In This Series -
Part-1 | Prologue
Part-2 | Family
Part-3 | Conveniences
Part-4 | Public Infrastructure

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