CMS LIFE

Why TenderSURE needs to be completed ASAP

Last week, I was pretty bewildered by all the sudden frenzy, brouhaha and media attention to the TenderSURE project in the city. The dusty yellow barricades, heaps of debris and all the pipes stacked up had become a common sight to anyone commuting through the CBD of the city. One initially was bound to assume that it was a routine utilities maintenance operation or some kind of footpath relaying or road widening project. However, TenderSURE is much more than that. The Jana Urban Space Foundation (JanaUSP), which is spearheading this project along with several prominent citizens of the city, on its website, says this about the project: “Project Tender S.U.R.E. is all about getting the urban road right; about addressing the issues that have made Indian roads so notorious for their chaotic traffic , potholes, broken footpaths, overflowing drainage,poorly placed power transformers and their hanging, spaghetti tangle of electrical wiring and telecom fixtures. It's about breaking out of the never-ending cycle of temporary fixes that arise from inadequate design and poorly monitored construction efforts. It's about doing away with the ever growing budgetary expenditure on digging and repairing the same roads time and time again whilst never managing to actually enhance the quality of the infrastructure itself, nor the experiences of those who use it; It's about finally taking steps towards addressing the relationship between the quality condition of our streets, and the quality of our lives.”

One evening, after watching a Hollywood blockbuster at a multiplex on Cunningham Road, I experienced hell. It was pouring cats and dogs and it was an unexpected sudden downpour, the kind Bengaluru is famous for. The situation was that of utter chaos. The drains were clogged, the roads were flooded with at least a couple of feet of water, the traffic was noisy and unruly and not surprisingly, stationary. Pedestrians were all over the road due to absence of a navigable footpath on either side of the road, causing even more confusion and putting themselves in danger. The BMTC buses caused huge confusion as they stopped far away from the designated bus stops. It was a nightmare. Large parts of the width of Cunningham Road and surrounding areas have been cordoned off for work on the TenderSURE project. To the layman, all the dirt, dust, muck, piles of sand and towers of tiles and pipes made the situation worse that day. However, the point is, TenderSURE is the permanent solution to such a situation. Had the project been completed, hypothetically, that day, none of the above chaos would have happened. There would’ve been no water logging as the drainage system undergoes a total overhaul, the footpaths would have been wide and pedestrian-friendly enough to accommodate all those people who were risking their lives, the dedicated areas for parking and bus shelters would have cleared the confusion of both the drivers and commuters and the traffic would have moved smoothly. 

In such a situation, elements in the bureaucracy with vested interests trying to throw a spanner in the works of the project are condemnable. An interesting case in point here is, the auto-rickshaw driver (of the auto I hired to get back home that night) seemed to be more aware about TenderSURE than a lot of people. He was all praise for the project, in Kannada. A rough translation would be something of this sort: “Why don’t they complete this project sooner, Sir?! They must work day and night and use all available machinery and technology to finish the work. It will benefit everyone and make commuting through the central parts of the city a breeze. We get a lot of abuse from the people, but I hope once this project is completed with all the facilities, happier citizens will mean lesser abuse towards us.” When he could get the essence of the entire project and its effort in creating better urban spaces with the help of design and innovation to improve the standard of living of Bengalureans, why can’t the officials and bureaucracy get it? Unnecessarily creating controversies and objecting to aspects like the width of the footpath is trivial. The BBMP designs and all the hyped road widening projects haven’t worked even a single bit in easing the traffic situation in the city for all these years. 

TenderSURE will work and must be given a chance. It will be beneficial if it is scaled up and implemented in a lot more areas and cities across the country. Come mid-2015, if all goes well, we will see the first TenderSURE road operational and running. The first phase will be completed by end of 2015 after which the project will go for a review and taken forward from there. Indian cities have always lacked the required aesthetic design and planning and TenderSURE is an encouraging step towards working on creating better public spaces and better urban infrastructure. It might seem small-scale as of now, but the impact can be huge. The Prime Minister’s ‘100-Smart-cities’ programme can probably take a leaf or two out of this initiative. It is a great initiative by some of the top corporate biggies, entrepreneurs, organisations and civic experts of the city. When the citizens work for the city, the city works for them.

BOOK REVIEW: Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat

First of all, I must admit I am not completely sure why I’m writing this review. It’s probably just to get my thoughts out and share my sorrows. Half of the English-language readers in this country (including the ones Bhagat claims to have initiated) have probably already finished reading the novel. A quarter are probably in the process and the rest are possibly either going to do so in the next couple of weeks or contemplating whether to bite the bullet.

For the sake of clarity, I’m a CB fan. He’s a wonderful human being, friendly and chilled out, ahead of the times, a crowd puller, a marketing mogul, a media darling, extremely intelligent and has his finger on the pulse of the youth of the country, A TRUE ROCKSTAR! Some of his earlier works, let’s face it, were super entertaining and fun to read. All the name-calling, slander and elitist ostracism was and continues to be ridiculous. Bhagat never claimed to be a literary genius with a penchant for vocabulary, grammar or for that matter, sense. He has always maintained a mass-appeal brand, is proud of it, bandies it about and that’s completely fine. If a Haider and Bang Bang can release on the same day and co-exist rather successfully, so can a Hosseini and Half Girlfriend. Just because Happy New Year is utter nonsense and both its comedy and action are highly idiotic, one cannot deny it being a movie or say it is not a product of filmmaking. It might not be a good movie (subjective) but it still is a film and looking at the collections, the people of the country love it. So to say Half Girlfriend is not a book or work of literature is equally foolish. It may not be a good book, but it still is very much literature (let’s ignore the tags, genres, sub-genres and categories) and millions of readers have read and loved it!

The first part of the book is set in St.Stephen’s, Delhi where many clichés are repeated and stereotypes pandered to. It is funny that the heroine wants to maintain distance and not get into a physical relationship only due to personal choice and not due to some kind of a class factor, as suggested in the synopsis. The significance of the title of the book also ends here. I expected it to have much more meaning and hold a strong theme running throughout the story. It was not so.

The rather weak storyline just dragged on and on at parts. It seemed like some parts were added to just increase the number of pages and thickness of the book. The plot itself plays out like a Bollywood movie word to word. No, it isn’t the fact that we have seen so many movies adapted from his books that makes this happen. It actually is like a Bollywood movie throughout. Scene to scene. One can even predict the locales, settings, props, and of course, the placement of songs. No wonder Mohit Suri and Ekta Kapoor pounced for the film rights even before the book released. The author throws in tips to learn better English, improve public speaking and even indulges in a little self-praise for teaching the non-English speaking youth of the country the language. Justified to an extent. Commercial compulsions have probably cost Bhagat a book that would have been a great example to have started a debate around the English elitism. However, if his interviews and talks are anything to go by, I am quite confused. On the one hand he trashes the English chauvinism of St.Stephen’s but is somehow fine with the scientific, mathematical and managerial chauvinism of the IITs and IIMs. So is he actually talking about the issue or playing to the gallery?

The plot twists are quite interesting. Especially towards the end, the story gathers some pace and some of the revelations Bhagat springs do take you by surprise. The second half of the movie… I mean, the book gets slightly more interesting and gets you hooked. At times the lack of detail and elaboration annoys you and at times, unnecessary details bore you to death. For example, on the one hand, a lot of social, economic and political issues of India are just mentioned abruptly. They don’t serve any purpose. If the objective is to throw light on some of these issues, an explanation in context is necessary. On the other hand, you are forced to overlook large chunks of information, at times entire paragraphs to skip the crappy and inconsequential details. This is especially true when streets and addresses in New York City are being talked about.

Having said that, Bhagat’s latest offering is disappointing. Was it the huge expectation? Was it the hype? Was it the marketing blitzkrieg? Maybe… But one thing is quite certain; it is easily his worst or second worst, I can’t choose between this and One Night at the Call Center. At the end of the day, let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way. Extremely mediocre language is a given. Simple language is his style is what he claims, but wrong English? Filmy, filmy, filmy all the way! Predictable ending, which is also super-duper filmy. A dash of strong, sensible emotion and a pinch of humour here and there keep you going by shocking you and shaking you, but this is too little to salvage the rest of the book. Let there be no doubt it is a mega-bestseller and loads of people love it. Similarly, it is going to be a mega-blockbuster that will set cash registers at box offices across the country ringing. It’s the kind of movie that will easily romp to the 100Cr. mark, and with the right casting, direction and some great music, one can’t rule out 150Cr. or even more for that matter. Is it worth the money? Absolutely! At Rs. 176, 150, 120 or 99 (depending on where and when one buys it) the book does justice. It is not a bad read, just a very ordinary one with nothing captivating or unique to offer. But is it worth the time and effort spent on finishing the novel? I would seriously suggest you consider waiting for the movie, in case you haven’t already decided. It will be almost the same thing anyway. But wait! Wasn’t Chetan’s intention to make young India read? Not until your work offers something more than Bollywood, sir.