The Tail of Cities

"This is the worst of times, this IS the worst of times..."

Bangalore, is no longer in the best of times. Why just Bangalore? No city is vaccinated against vagaries of time and society.

From a sleepy city to a bustling one, from green to brown, from 'we' to 'me', from hospitality to brutality.. Just about everything shows a clear trend - > Disgruntled people and a weeping city.

From what I know about trends analysis, there is something called a 'breakout' accompanied with a few other characteristics which trigger a fresh trend in movement of a wave. If we compare the fate of the city to a wave, we have already seen the 'breakout' in the last 2-3 years.

Along with economic development and changes to society & our collective mindsets, we have now moved into a different orbit.

Look at the words below in the context of Bangalore-Before and Bangalore-Now. Notice what you feel as you run the words in your head.

Economic Activity
Rich-poor divide
Growth
Flora & Fauna
Traffic & Civic sense
Administration
Public perception & behaviour
City Climate
Empowerment

Development is an inclusive term, but we have made it lopsided.
The great Indian middle class is growing with more money and power, but is that a sign of a better society?
Are we more developed if we have more wealth than last year?
Cant we think of development in terms of number of trees in the city co-existing with better movement of people?

The 'development' we are talking and thinking of is going to bring us all down under its weight. Take the case of mindless felling of trees and the plundering of nature for flyovers/roads/parking area/commercial activity. Or even the mindless culling of hundreds of stray dogs to avenge the tragic death of a girl by few handful of insane dogs.
Barbarism is closing on us, as we single mindedly pursue 'financial and immediate profit'. Common sense is slowly getting buried and the bad news is that we do not even realise it.

The tail of the city has wagged and the signal is there for all of us to see.