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.