Bangalore – 5

The sky: cloudy; the temperature: just right, not prickly hot as in Bombay; I see trendy clothes, even burqa-wearing women who even cover their entire face and wear gloves. What contrasts! That too in the most modern of India’s technology cities. I visit Sarjapura Road, the hub of the IT industry and see that tradition hasn’t entirely capitulated to modernism. Real estate industry is booming. There are projects everywhere. I visit Kanakapura Road, a beautiful place which has the making of a salubrious hill station when the as-of-now jutting steel and scaffolding turn into residential colonies.

There are also many living in the old enclaves who haven’t benefited from the boom. They carry an ominous scowl on their faces as they walk. It’s as if they are deeply unhappy about something. It’s an intellectual crisis they are facing, according to me. The happy hippie generation has passed the baton to the more material generation who listen to pirated music on i-pods and other listening devices. They don’t care to buy tapes, CDs and records. For them everything should be free and they pride themselves by the skills they have to infringe copyright, steal intellectual property, and do all this with a sense of heroism. But the music of the seventies has survived. Rock is still rock and pop is still pop. Only rap is new. I mention this in passing because Bangalore was long known to be the capital of Indian rock, metal and pop and my favourite singer Elton John, he of the soulful melodies, bypassed Bombay for Bangalore.

Guess I like to pontificate. That’s why I take too long to write even a small post. There’s more to come.