On the brink

For die-hard Bangaloreans living in Bangalore's once non-descript eastern side know this familar Ulsoor landmark. It is the spot where the road forks on the left before you approach the Ulsoor Police Station. It is a spot remnant of the real Bangalore of yore. It is all but a little temple with flower stalls that mark the place, opposite the Someshwara Temple chariot shelter and flanking the Yellamma temple's backwall (the shops in the backdrop hide the wall). Come festival season, this whole stretch, from the Ulsoor Bus-stand Petrol Bunk would come alive. Garlands, unstrung flowers, Ganesha idols ahead of the Ganesh pooja, puffed rice ahead of Vijayadashami and Ayudha Pooja, coconuts, incense sticks...this stretch was full of them.

For the brand royalty kind, there was Sreedevi Hotel with its good food, the coffee grinding shops and the Ulsoor bazaar street.

That was, until this village Halasuru found itself suddenly bull-dozed with burgeoning two-wheeler and four-wheeler population marauding it to make way to MG Road and other central parts of the city. Metro, has turned the stretch into an open grave.

This little temple bears testimony to the immense ruthlessness of humans in the name of infrastructure building. City Czars rarely bother about destroying the original character of cities. Even if it is about razing down what was once the very popular jhatka stand. Over the years the horse-driven tonga stop became a haven All they are bothered about is, raking in the moolah - cash or credit, hype or hoopla. Places like the South of Mumbai have the luxury of some heritage saver groups hitting out at anything that mars the city's aesthetics.

Bangaloreans, are busy making their IT money and buying apartments on loans. Before they find enough time to fight back, probably eons away, ruthless greed would have turned this place to mud.