BENGALURU: As the recent rain spells have turned streets into canals and crawling traffic has reduced busy junctions into parking lots of sorts, schoolchildren are living their dream, thanks to a sudden rain of holidays.
On the other hand, tech professionals sip coffee from the comfort of their work-from-home setups, away from traffic woes. But guess who’s still out there, wading through waterlogged roads and stuck in bumper-to-bumper crawl? College students, of course!
TOI caught up with college students from different corners of the city, who have a shared mission: not losing their attendance.From hopping over puddles to battling gridlocks on rain-soaked streets, they speak about their ordeal in braving through Bengaluru’s rain and traffic.
Aswath Satheesh, II year UG student, BMS College of Engineering
Schoolchildren get holidays, but us college students? No chance! It’s totally unfair—most private school students have the luxury of a school bus, while we’re stuck with public transport. Buses and metros, during heavy rain, are either late or packed entirely. By the time you squeeze in, you’re already drenched. And if you’re one of the ‘lucky’ ones with a personal vehicle, you get the added bonus of worrying about it getting wrecked by floods
Mythili Krishna, II year degree student, St Joseph’s University
On Tuesday, traffic was so bad that it took me 3.5 hours to cover what should be a 1.5-hour journey. And the worst part? I was stuck for an hour when I was just 3km from home! It’d be nice if colleges showed us some empathy, or better yet, if someone could sort out the waterlogging issues on roads. We just want to make it to class in one piece, not drenched and stressed out!
Sai Charan, III year engineering student from PES University
Most colleges are keeping classes going like nothing happened. It’s like they think we can all magically appear. The govt or BBMP? They seem to clean up at a snail’s pace, so we’re left dealing with this mess every day. If you’ve got classes that run late, good luck—there’s even more rain and traffic to deal with
Hiloni Jhigghna, a student from Christ University
Our college is strict about attendance, so skipping isn’t an option. My classes start at 9.45am, which means I’m up by 6am just to make it on time. Now, with rain, I have to wake up even earlier to dodge peak traffic. All should understand that we are still students. Just because we’re older doesn’t mean we can swim through flooded streets to get to class
Vaishnavi Nair, II year mass communication student
Auto drivers are not accepting trips though I offer extra bucks. It has been hectic, and there’s always the problem of attendance. I missed about two days of classes due to rain and traffic woes. What’s worse is professors don’t even count this chaos as a reason to cut us some slack
What netizens say
PBG @nimmaPBG: I request authorities not to turn a blind eye to university students. Roads are choking and students are struggling to reach colleges, from different parts of Bengaluru. Engineering colleges and other universities deserve holidays too
Azhar @Azhar_Shaik___: What sin did the college students do, schools are closed and employees get WFH but college functions normally? Why? Any important reason?