Most recently, the 'Southerners' heckled against a flyover that completely overshadows their 90-year-old alma mater, National College (among the many illustrious alumini of this college are three great Indian spinners EAS Prasanna, B S Chandrashekar and Anil Kumble), and uprooted nearly a 100-year-old Vani Vilas Circle with magnificent chandelier lampposts, inBasavangudi. Most walkers who love the serene tree-lined calm of the road, typical of old Bangalore, which touches the century-old Ramakrishna Math and leads to the gates of the renowned botanical gardens, Lal Bagh, argued that the road was their common heritage and was being sacrificed to something "as ridiculous" as traffic. A 100 years for a city like Delhi may be nothing, but, for a young 467-year-old city,it is quite a chunk and holds the key to the civilisation clues of the place.
The battle cry against traffic is not confined to South Bangalore alone but is spread across the city. And the cry gets more shrill as residents see markers of their city's character and history getting demolished even while there is no sign of traffic reducing. "Like in the case of all emerging cities, it is a difficult choice between retaining the past and meeting the necessities of the present," says Suresh Moona, a historian of the city. According to the Transport Department an average of 650 to 700 vehicles get registered in the city per day and currently there are 19,81,589 vehicles plying on Bangalore's roads.
Contrast these figures with the almost forgotten Bangalore Development Committee Report presented by thevisionary retired Dewan of Mysore, Madhava Rau, in 1954. The report which spoke of Greater Bangalore and an outer ring road for the first time projected a population of 14,14,000 for the city by 2001 at 12.5 per cent increase per decade. His projection for 2031 was 20,00,000. A gross underestimation, you may say, if presented with today's population figures of 65,23,110. When the report was written, there were just about 8535 motor vehicles in the city. Nothing more needs to be said about Bangalore's rapid transition into chaos and most of it has happened in the 1990s. "Since the transformation of the city has taken place at the speed of an e-mail, people think that before they could bat an eyelid the most familiar things that they identified with the city's character are gone," says Veena Shivraj, an engineer from Bangalore who lives in Santa Clara.
What are these familiar things for Bangaloreans is a long list. But here are a few that would strike a chord with many:
Let us begin with some 70 to 100-year-old traffic islands that had to be done away with toaccommodate smoother movement of traffic. Hudson Circle that recalled the contribution of educationist and missionary Joshua Hudson was removed; Irwin Circle that was built to commemorate the visit of viceroy Lord Irwin to the city was done away with, apparently Lord Irwin was so happy with Bangalore's development that he waived off a huge loan that the Mysorestate owed the Imperial government; Inayatullah Mekri Circle built in 1937 was sacrificed for an underpass in North Bangalore, the carved name plaque was carelessly thrown only to be restored to an obscure corner after the family protested; the most famous Vani Vilas circle that was witness to the Mysore Chalo agitation in 1946 and Mahatama Gandhi's visit; Shoolay Circle; Richmond Circle; Bhasyam Circle in Sadashivanagar and Krishna Raja Circle that were demolished were equally old.