‘Drown’ it out!

BENGALURU:  I flew into my beloved water-logged city. From the clouds above, thunder rattled the aircraft windows as little children howled with fear. I was asked by various news channels to give a byte on the prevailing situation and I flatly refused. What could I have told them which has not already been said before? Bengaluru was once a city of lakes.

In fact many names of localities and roads still bear the suffix ‘tank’ to it. To the lay person not even a trickle of water is visible leave alone a lake or tank. There has been an unholy nexus of the ‘men in white’ the builders and the local civic body to put their abhorrent signatures and seals on illegal documents and then retire.

Whether a person of lower or higher income occupies a dwelling, a fierce loyalty is evident in both. In a country like ours, the most important thing is to have a roof over one’s head. I have noticed that abroad, people pack up their belongings in a U-haul and move cities. Not so in our neck of the woods. If we buy or occupy a house, we proceed to make it a home.

Many people have spoken about inadequate drainage, lack of infrastructure etc etc (all true), but if one goes to a reputed builder and pays an arm and a leg for a dwelling then one assumes all the necessary paper-work is in order. One may call it naïve, but honestly, there is no transparency in any civic office and getting to the relevant documents is a nightmare. Instead of just blaming the hapless owners, the person who approved the landfill has to be penalised too and fat chance of that happening right? This time the people living in more upmarket areas were affected.

They made arrangements to save themselves. If we saw pictures of the less fortunate with their belongings and houses awash, rest assured the ‘menin- white’ would have congregated for a photo-op and to make false promises. But fortunate or not…everyone’s belongings was floating in the flood waters. Constantly moaning and no entertainment makes Jill a dull girl I have been told. I was advised that moping about a ‘cuddle-bundle’ I left behind in Mumbai is a useless exercise.

So with no further persuasion needed, I accepted an invitation from the charming Madhav Sehgal, (GM of the Leela Palace), to join him for an exclusive repast curated by the talented Sarah Todd (Australia Master-Chef winner). The dinner was superb with the young Sarah audaciously using Indian spices and techniques to enhance a predominantly French fare. Our table had an interesting mix of people and the superb wine pairings added to the raucous banter.

The floods were truly forgotten! In the two days that I have been back it’s been a Sarah Todd on both days! This time the charming Kanchan Achpal Kinger invited us to her massive new Smoor Chocolate outlet in the swish CBD area, to catch Sarah Todd and her in-house chef Avijit, conduct a chocolatier master-class. World-class brands are making a bee-line into our city and it’s truly wonderful! Now if only our pathetic infra-structure could match up to the ‘wold-class title…that would be just dandy! A poor mind ‘drowns’ in excuses. A rich mind ‘drowns’ in solutions.