The unrest...

This time during my stay in Bangalore for four months, I noticed a lots of things about Bangalore that were changing. Growing intolerance, judgemental attitudes, ultra-moderness, stricter assertion of the institution of the family, stronger sex segregation, moral policing by the khaki and much more. Part of me wants to label some of these things, even if in mild proportion, as Bangalore's first serious response not only to westernization, but to modernity and colonialism as well.

The Bangalore I know was one that was very tolerant towards differences, along with being strict on discipline and personal values. It is a city that never needed rules about alcohol consumption, a very strict social abomination was present for anyone who exceeded the limits. But finally, people would just say its his/her own problem, what can we do? A kind of non-interference policy. In the public spaces, nobody looked or stared at anybody too much. The attitude of indifference and safe distance had advantages indeed, it was like a constant message was being beamed to everyone--if they don't fend for themselves, bad for them!

But this time, I saw a policeman look at me with so much suspicion and in almost a vulgar way because I was sitting with a male friend on a park bench. The experience was so disgusting. I was shocked that instead of handling eve-teasers effectively, people were more worried about possible lovers in parks. Remember the controversy over lovers in Lalbagh? Not only that, as I was walking with my friend, I noticed two women of a family looking at us with absolute scorn, noticing that I displayed no signs of being married to my accompanying friend. They were making a strong statement about people who don't honour traditional rules anymore. They seemed to have a clear idea of what they were defending and even expressed it strongly. This expression is new, earlier it would have been an 'i don't care' attitude.

Then again, I was sitting with a male friend on a bus, and an old man got in and asked me to vacate the seat for him. I refused and said that you can ask for your sympathy seat from men as well and pointed to someone younger than me, a man, to vacate the seat for him. He started to say that ladies seats were in the front and I was meant to sit there. A full blown argument started. To my greatest surprise and eventual anger, both the bus conductor and the old man said that this was not a couple's seat. Such hatred towards friends of the opposite sex! This was an attempt to defend everything Indian and resist everything western. As Bangalore is populated more and more by outsiders and migrant software and IT professionals, my guess is that the situation will only worsen.

I miss the Bangalore that, 20 years ago, was all about hard work, professionalism, non-interference and discipline.

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