TECHNOPOLIS grinds to a halt, rain wreaks havoc in hi-tech city. High water is here, can hell be far behind? There is all-round anguish over the state of Bangalore, or Bengaluru, after rains inundated its roads, leaving muddy lakes, lonesome buildings and weary travellers making their way home from the airport in tractors. A large part of it, one must admit, is that ungainly German word schadenfreude, which means being happy at someone else's misery. The exactness of that word is not reflected in "One man's meat is another's poison" and it's just one word, a trifle long with 13 alphabets. 13! Oh, that's another coincidence.
For more than four decades, Bengaluru has been the magnet of the South, inviting attention and investment away from the original metropolises, Chennai and Hyderabad. The latter was once a sleepy, nawabi, mist-laden city surrounded by cantonments. The cities in Kerala didn't count for investment as the state was often swamped by the red fog and the infamy of attimari. So, you get why the schadenfreude!
In the late 80s and early 90s, Bengaluru was a nice city; you would need a sweater if it rained in mid-August, like it does usually around Independence Day. The winters were colder, albeit not as bad as up North. The Garden City slowly grew out of being a scenic cantonment town and ballooned into a huge sprawl of concrete, tarmac and lakes overrun by development and greedy contractors. Along came investment as the big titans of MNC land made a beeline for the city for its nice weather (yes, that had to be said), cheap and good beer (that too) and hardworking people. That definition of people expanded from a Kannadiga-led South Indian populace to a thrumming hub of attraction for everyone across the country. Chhole and tikki are not difficult to find there, nor is Sindhi or Assamese food.
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