Daily delayed deadlines and other depressors

Bangalore: The city seems to be on full transformation. Cutting down of trees, to sprouting bridges, all happening simultaneously is a curse to busy Bangalore residers.

Although broken promises hurt the most, no north Bangalorean is unaware of it. The sights and sounds on the busiest road this side of town are more than an inconvenience to daily travelers.

The BBMP initiated a project at the Cauvery Theatre junction of a new-to-town structure called the ‘magic box underpass’ it is a device that has been applied previously in Malaysia. It’s cost effective and uses pre-casted blocks. Most importantly, the construction is not too time taking.

This 65m underpass was proposed with a head turning completion period of 72 hours. The anticipated date flew by in no time and now it’s almost gone into a month, still being incomplete. Everyday the date is extended. If not 72 hours, it would be nice to see it completed by 72 days at least.

The other day, I decided to go pay a visit to the Bob’s of Bangalore. Apart from the ongoing details of work at the construction site, a few other sights moved me to writing this post.

What I saw:

The Construction workers

¨ Dressed in cheap shirts and trousers, and a few bare feet didn’t say much about how developed we are as a country. Working with and under heavy and dangerous machinery such as cranes not a single man at work out there had a construction hat on. What ever happened to the whole scene of yellow bobbing heads at work? This could be highly detrimental for these unequipped workers.


¨ If the underpass is to be built within a tight interlude 72 hours, we can’t have only seven men accomplishing it. The sight was crowded. Not with construction workers but with policemen and city gazers.

¨ Mobile phones: I really didn’t think I would ever see this happening. Out of the above mentioned 7 workers, 3 would be conversing on a mobile phone. Dhiru Bhai Ambani surely did a great job of providing literally everyone with a mobile phone, but everything has a catch to it remember?

The sprit of the onlookers

I happened to over hear a conversation between a cop and a passer-by and my heart raced with poignant patriotism but I decided to keep quiet and now I regret it.

Middle class worker: 72 hour long joke sir, don’t you think?

Cop: *laughs* I would be surprised if our Indians can plan it out in the span on 72 hours, let alone building it.

Middle Class worker: We’re truly unfit and lack skills, no one works properly, its pointless watching Indian blood at work, let’s just pray that after it’s done it doesn’t collapse over our bones.

Ouch. Then why claim, ‘East or west India is the best?’