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Blinding lights
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As she watches neon-lit ads along the busy Bangalore streets, Pallavi Chinya remembers children back in her village whose study schedules are dictated by erratic power supply
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My question is, does the city need a facelift that makes it look like New York or Singapore?
EVERY NIGHT, as I make my journey back home from office, which is nearly 25 km away, I inevitably close my eyes... No, not out of exhaustion. But because I am kind of "visioned off" (if I may be allowed to coin a word) by the glow lights and neon signs installed on almost all dividers and along all most namma Bengaluru roads. It's not simply that they dazzle my eyes and make my mind fuzzy, but that the ads screaming different things bring back to memory the children in my ancestral village who adjust their study time according to the power supply schedules. It also brings back to mind what I learnt as a child: a unit saved is a unit produced. Now, when confronted with illuminated ads and name boards of every big or small store, often sponsored by some multi-national company, I wonder what to make of it.
There was a time when we bought groceries at the corner shettara angandi. I don't know whether the store had so much as a name, but had a kind "uncle" who gave us small peppermints (nimbehuli peppermentu) once in a while out of sheer affection. So, when at those well-illuminated supermarkets which can be spotted 500 metres away and guys there give toffees instead of change, I think of our shettara uncle.
Neon light ads catch your eye (well, even blind you!) and give the feeling that the city never sleeps. But at what cost?
Is it another example for changing times or shifting priorities? My question is, does the city need a facelift that makes it look like New York or Singapore? Pleaaaaze... Give me any day a Govinda than an Indian version of Richard Gere!
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