I was on a photography trip a couple of weeks back. Only instead of taking candid shots of the kids or the pup, or lovely stuff, or verdant Cubbon Park that I like to do (and share on Instagram), I have been taking ugly photos of Bangalore, of the havoc that the heavy rains caused on our roads.
I guess I was bored stuck in traffic jams (sometimes for a record 3 hours), just to travel a 5-km wide stretch of Outer Ring Road to get to my office.
So, here are a few shots I took while I was stuck in a traffic jam caused by actually very little rain. All that flooding is due to our poor drainage system and flyover construction in that particular section of the road.
Those folks pumping out the water in the last photo were doing it at 9:30 am in the morning during peak traffic time. This when the rains had halted the previous night itself, and they could have come earlier and cleaned it up. So, while I am happy that they did help sort out the road, it really should have been much earlier in the day.
To add to the misery, there was a bus strike for three days forcing people to use their own transport, which meant we had double the traffic on the roads during these flooded times.
I felt most terrible for the people without any means of travel who depend on the bus for their commute. The outer ring road was flooded with people trying to cop a ride, or desperate enough to pay exorbitant amounts to cabs, private buses, and autos to get where they needed to go.
The more adventurous (or desperate) clambered on top the few overcrowded private buses that were on the road, paying (I assume) huge sums of money to sit on top of the bus.
The above photo was taken by a colleague from work who shared it with me.
Sad state of affairs 🙁 .
But then as I drive home past the misery of the Outer Ring Road, I looked up and saw this beautiful purple sunset, and stopped to capture it.
I can't say that the beautiful sunset made the horrendous drive back home worth it, but it did work to cut my stress and improve my mood so I didn't arrive home a cranky mess.
If you live in Bangalore, tell me your horror traffic tales, go ahead tell me regardless of where you live 🙂 . How do you manage to stay sane in traffic?
I feel very sheepish to admit that I do a lot of Instagramming, and whatsapping while I wait for things to move. Oops! Also, the gaana app helped quite a bit. I was able to listen to only the songs I want without waiting on annoying ads, or over-chirpy radio jockeys.
