Bangalore best to live in ?

GEETHA RAO
[ 6 Sep, 2006 2239hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

This city tops the list for quality of life. Is that really true?

A recent study across Indian cities had people saying Bangalore's the best city to live in and the second best to earn in. Is that really so? BT asked Bangaloreans who'd lived in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Wildlife expert Saad Bin Jung lived in Hyderabad for 22 years, followed by Bangalore for 22 years, and says, "The weather in Bangalore was fantastic then. And the quality of life, the best. Now, the very people who have destroyed Bangalore are making politically correct noises about putting it back on track again. It's like wildlife. First you finish the animals and then try to bring them back again. Bangalore's been destroyed by a small percentage that's gained dramatically by it, but there's nothing for the common man, like me, today. You can't change Bangalore because those who have benefitted by it are extremely powerful. Bangalore was a thousand times better than Hyderabad earlier."

Hyderabad, he says, is a very old and civilised city and the people care enough for the city to reinvent it. "But in Bangalore, there are too many people from outside who have settled here, and don't care for the city." Opportunities-wise, Bangalore and Hyderabad are similar.

Chippy Gangjee, who's lived in Kolkata before he moved to Bangalore 22 years ago says Bangalore weather's the best.

"But if the infrastructure was as good as in SM Krishna's time, it'd be even better to live here. We may crib like hell about the traffic, but go to another city, and you just want to come running back."

Gangjee deals with some of the worst roads in LB Shastrinagar where he lives: "They are horrendous, I travel on them some four times a day, yet the amount of peace that Bangalore offers is something you can't get anywhere."

And the people. In Chippy Gangjee's apartment block, there are a dozen Bengali families among the 200 living there and 30-40 more in the locality, but both Bengalis and non-Bengalis have decided to celebrate Durga Puja together. "People are so cosmopolitan," he says.

However, Kolkata is less expensive: "a great city, costwise, whether it's vegetables or rentals or eating out."

Gagan Bindra, marketing manager with a multiplex, who's lived in Delhi for seven years, and Bangalore for six, says Delhi being the capital, has the edge in terms of infrastructure.

"I'm not saying Delhi's perfect, but you can see a lot of development. Now with the Commonwealth Games coming to Delhi, there's even more focus on infrastructure."

And traffic? Bindra says, "Even if you are caught in a traffic jam in Bangalore, it's much better than being caught in the scorching heat in Delhi."

And the people here are welcoming of outsiders, he says. In Delhi, more or less, the attitude is we belong here, may be we know better than you do. Danseuse Vani Ganapathy who's travelling constantly to Mumbai says what we lack here is discipline.

"I was in Mumbai during Janmashtami, which is celebrated in a grand manner there. Despite that, there was disciplined traffic movement. I stay in Chennai only for two days so I don't really know, but my cousins there say it's quite calm. Here, though, I was caught in the traffic jam during Sonia Gandhi's visit, and there was chaos. Some hooligans actually turned on the police."