Bangalore: Hot and sweaty in the dark

 Successive governments have pledged to turn Bangalore into a "world-class city", but either they have no clue what that means, or they just mouth acceptable platitudes while attending to the more urgent business of graft opportunities. In the meanwhile, the citizens of Bangalore(or at least the vast majority who live outside of certain privileged blocks which are guaranteed uninterrupted power and water from the utilities) continue to suffer through incessant water shortages, random and frequent power outages of uncertain duration, and the general filth and squalor which permeates this supposed "garden city".

 The city's electric utility, BESCOM(Bangalore Electric Supply Company), recently claimed that there would be no load-shedding in Bangalore. "Load-shedding", while a legitimate term for controlling peak consumption, is used in India to cover incompetence and grift in the utility. In Bangalore, there are sometimes announcements in the media stating start and end times for load-shedding. While this gives citizens a heads-up for those hours, the more normal experience is that the power goes off at random times, for indeterminate periods of upto several hours. As I type this, the power has gone off three times in the last hour, for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. It was off for at least an hour this morning prior to 6 AM. It will without doubt go off several times again later today. What triggers these shutoffs is anyone's guess, but BESCOM says that it is not load-shedding. Sadly, this is nothing new, and has been part of the Indian experience since before I was born, and will doubtless continue to be so after I am gone, given the planning and implementation currently going on.

 The water utility, in the meanwhile, announced with much fanfare recently the commissioning of an additional 500 million liters per day(MLD) to the city's water supply. I thought this would certainly close the gap between supply and demand, but that has not proven to be the case. The utility, BWSSB, recently provided various excuses for why there continues to be a shortage, despite saying they are drawing only 225 MLD from the additional supply due to insufficient demand in new areas. That should make 275 MLD available to address shortages in other areas, but apparently this has not occurred to the mandarins running the BWSSB. One must bear in mind that this is water supply, not drinking water, for which one must further treat the water, as I do, or resort to bottled water.

 The upshot of this unending bumbling incompetence and apathy by the utilities is that the average citizen of Bangalore can never be quite certain of being able to take a warm shower in the morning, or to sleep the hot nights away(Bangalore's reputation of being an "air-conditioned city" is now irrevocably past history) under a whirring ceiling fan or- for the wealthier- in an air-conditioned room. It's amusing to observe in the evenings the clatter and whine of appliances simultaneously being put to use as early as possible to guard against the strong possibility that there may not be power at supper time. While most middle-class homes now have battery power back-ups, these only last a couple of hours, and will not power appliances, refrigerators or air-conditioners, and sometimes will trip on a single additional fan being turned on.

 A couple of days ago, we were driving around the Ulsoor Lake area, and someone pointed out a rather nice open-air rooftop restaurant. The temptation to stop in lasted but a moment, as the stench from an open sewer channel blasted us in the face. It would be quite difficult, I think, to keep your open-air lunch down while assimilating the lovely aroma of Bangalore's organic liquid waste. I doubt I'll see that restaurant open still in a year's time. In the meanwhile, I'm looking hard for signs of the promised "world-class city", as I sit on my rooftop, hot and sweaty in the dark.

Narendra Modi and the Ivies

 No, that's not the latest pop act from Gujarat. It's the mercurial Gujarat CM, and the ongoing saga of trying to get blue-blooded American approval of him. Lately, there's been a lot of buzz about overtures to the Gujarat Chief Minister by the UK, talk of the US also sending out tentative feelers, and most recently, the ruckus over the cancellation of a Skype address by the Modimeister to the Wharton Indian Economic Forum. This last, of course, follows the action taken by Harvard against Subramanian Swamy, broadly for the same reason, which is their strong- one might even say virulent- anti-Muslim positions.

 Reactions, predictably, have been strong on both sides, with liberals praising the Wharton administration, and the "Hindu nationalist" supporters equally vocal for their champion. Normally, I would tend to stay out of such controversies, but I have been increasingly irked by the tendency of some Indian-Americans in academia(no doubt working in concert with their political friends) to attempt to put the Ivy stamp of approval on their favorite Indian politicians, thus damaging and cheapening the image of both the schools as well as the broader Indian-American community. I perceive the Modi saga as a back-door attempt to regroup after the US refusal to issue a visa to the Gujarati CM.

 I have lived most of my life in the US, from a time when the number of Indians in the US was still firmly in the mid-6 figure range. I have watched as Indians on F, J and H visas swarmed in by the hundreds of thousands, and suddenly it was no longer unusual to see an Indian at a K-Mart or at a rest stop on the interstate. Indian restaurants sprang up everywhere, the "Potel"(Patel-Motel) phenomenon took off, Indian ownership of convenience stores was caricatured by "Appu" in The Simpsons, and "Little Indias" sprang up everywhere from New Jersey to Illinois to California to Maryland. This first generation surge came to study and to work on temporary projects, and stayed to get permanent residency and then citizenship, buy homes, get married and raise families. Over the past two decades, their second-generation children have acquired a reputation for academic excellence(though not- surprise!- for athletic prowess) and have moved into prominent positions in finance, academia, medicine, law and even politics. But concurrently, I saw a disconcerting campaign by the group of allegedly "Hindu nationalist" organizations collectively referred to as "the sangh parivar" to recruit both new immigrants as well as the second generation- frequently on university campuses- and indoctrinate them with a strain of their worldview possibly even more virulent than the home-grown variety.

 This expanded American arm of the parivar now appears to be seeking to put a patina of American approval on the BJP, and to indirectly validate what I consider to be socially regressive doctrines by organizing quasi-academic seminars at major American universities, especially the Ivies. The major problem I see with this is that it dilutes and dishonors the hard-won reputation of Indian academics in the US, by using the prestige of these universities to political dirty ends. It sullies both the Indian community as well as the host universities. It is perfectly feasible- and indeed desirable- to have vigorous political debate in a campus setting. But insisting on inviting polarizing and dubious politicians- in an atmosphere of highly-charged opposing Indian student groups- in the guise of them allegedly being economic wizards bodes ill for the intellectual esteem in which the Indian-American community is held. This is washing our dirty linen in the neighbor's living room.

 And that brings me to my final observation. I have followed Modi's performance for years, and I have not been able to find substantial support for the general perception that he has led Gujarat to unparalleled(among Indian peers) performance. Decadal results show that while Gujarat has indeed been among the best performers, it has been outperformed by states which do not receive the media accolades which Modi's Gujarat consistently receives. States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and even Bihar. The only explanation I can find for this anomaly is that Gujarat is far more media-savvy than the others. And, on the other hand, I find that the other BJP-ruled states are underperforming, and rapidly developing a reputation for corruption every bit as bad as those in Congress-ruled states.

 Without wanting to end on a depressing note, but having no choice, I see India's politics and seething undercurrents of social tensions(carefully tended by the politicians to whom this is as mothers' milk) as a major ball-and-chain for India's progress. What do you think?